Computerized method and system for providing customized entertainment content

ABSTRACT

Targeted Content solutions can be provided using a variety of techniques. Targeted Content can be provided in place of generic advertisements on a first device or on personal computing devices. Targeted Content can be presented during, or in place of, generic advertisements in Content (e.g., television content, streaming content, etc.). Targeted Content can include customized video content to improve a user&#39;s viewing experience and thereby provide increased revenue opportunities for advertisers and content providers. The video content and/or customized content that is provided to a user can be paused or substituted to permit customized content to be delivered to the user. The video content and/or customized content can be of sporting events, and can facilitate and improve participation in a Fantasy Sports league.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of the following patentapplications:

PCT application No. PCT/US2014/057532, filed Sep. 25, 2014,U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/883,180 filed Sep. 26, 2013,U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/891,323 filed Oct. 15, 2013,U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/970,878, filed Mar. 26, 2014,U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/024,964, filed Jul. 15, 2014, andU.S. Provisional Application No. 62/024,973, filed Jul. 15, 2014,which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to computerized methods and systems for providingentertainment content and in particular to providing customizedentertainment content.

BACKGROUND

Entertainment content is increasingly available in digital form fortransmission to a variety of devices such as televisions, computers andhandheld devices. Such entertainment content can be transmitted via avariety of systems to permit not only traditional broadcasting of thesame content to a wide audience but also targeted transmission viastreaming and downloads. Storage of entertainment content in digitalvideo recorders (DVRs) provides additional flexibility.

Sporting events, as a form of entertainment content, are now availablein a variety of formats including live broadcast and on-demand streamingand download. Moreover, highlights are shown in a variety of programsand are also available online for on-demand viewing. Supplementing thevideo content is an increasingly rich set of data regarding sportingevents and players.

Fantasy Sports (e.g. American football, basketball, Australian rulesfootball, rugby, soccer, cricket, baseball, and hockey) is a competition(statistical game) in which Contestants act as owners to select/buildand manage an imaginary team from among the real players of aprofessional sport to compete against other Fantasy Sports Team ownersin a league by scoring points according to the actualperformance/statistics of their team's players. Specific rules vary fromleague to league, but tend to be similar in nature and often includerules associated with standard league types (e.g. head-to-head, totalpoints, all play, keeper style, salary cap, two quarterback, and dailyleague types). Fantasy Football, by way of example, takes advantage ofthe rich set of data that is compiled by the National Football League(NFL) and other organizations. In Fantasy Football, Contestants grouptogether to form a league and compete throughout the NFL season. Beingardent fans, these Contestants are regular viewers of NFL games and inparticular of the games involving their selected players.

While there are a number of options by which entertainment content canbe delivered and viewed, there remains a need for methods and systemsthat provide customized entertainment content and in particular thatprovide customized content with respect to sporting events.

SUMMARY

This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This Summary is not intended to identify key features oressential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended tobe used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Embodiments described herein provide improved customization of videocontent to improve a User's viewing experience and thereby provideincreased revenue opportunities for advertisers and content providers.In certain embodiments, video content that is provided to a User ispaused or substituted to permit customized content to be delivered tothe User. For example, a User watching a live transmission of a footballgame (or other sports game) is provided, during a commercial break orother game play hiatus, with replays featuring players of interest tothe User. In some embodiments, game play may be replaced or temporarilypaused to allow replay of a play (or portion thereof) in another gametranspiring contemporaneously that includes an interesting event for aplayer of interest.

Such players may be for example, players selected by the User for theirFantasy Football Team (or other Fantasy Sports Team) or for the playersof another team they are competing against, such as in head-to-headleagues. Some Users may be in a plurality of leagues for a given sportand may select at any given time the one or more leagues they are inwhich is of current interest to them for that sport. Each league may beassigned a distinctive look-and-feel, either as assigned by the Userand/or defaulted by their league's SyncGroup. The distinctivelook-and-feel allows the User to easily recognize which of their leaguesis being presented to them at a given time. The distinctivelook-and-feel may include a league name and/or logo that is shown as adigital on-screen graphic, as well as a distinctive color-scheme, fontor layout for statistical and other Fantasy Football informationpertaining to plays (or portion(s) thereof) being viewed. In audiocontent, the distinctive look-and-feel may correspond to a unique voice,accent, pace, cadence and/or tonal quality being assigned to a league.Selected replays may be composed together to create a narrativeanalogous to a regular football game. For example, in one replay clip, auser's quarterback may make a successful pass, and in a subsequent clip,one of the user's players (possibly playing in a different game) maymake a successful reception, or alternatively, a player on a FantasyFootball team they are competing with might make an interception. Theseplays (or portion(s) thereof) may be choreographed together to compose afictional narrative that is composed of the selected replays for a userand optionally the one or more users they are facing in, for example, aweek's competition. The narrative may reveal a running score, analogousto a running score during a game. The order of replays being revealedmay be set so as to increase the number of times one team pulls ahead ofanother. Plays (or portion(s) thereof) can be weaved together so as tomake logical connections, such as replaying a quarter back initiating apass in one replay and then cutting to an opposing player making aninterception in another play or alternatively, cutting to another playerof user making a successful reception.

Rules and/or heuristics may be created to automatically define howdifferent kinds of plays (or portion(s) thereof) may be pleasinglyfitted together and replay segments may be annotated with the kinds ofplays (or portion(s) thereof, e.g. a pass throw, a reception, a tackle,etc.) they contain as well as time-coded entry and exit points for usein various contexts. For example, in a passing play, time-coded tagsmight be placed on the formation at the line of scrimmage, the point ofball snap, a shot of the ball being thrown, another as it reaches thepeak/vertex of its parabolic arc, and a third at successful reception orinterception. Such time points are a useful cut point to go betweenportions of two different plays such as from your quarterback in oneplay portion to your receiver in another.

In other embodiments, a Contestant in a Fantasy Football league that isa User is provided with a video anthology of plays (or portion(s)thereof) featuring players in the Contestant's Fantasy Football Team.For example, such an anthology can include key plays (or portion(s)thereof) by players in the Contestant's Fantasy Football Team in gamesover the prior week. Such an anthology can be inserted into anotherprogram being viewed by the Contestant. For example, if the Contestantis viewing a Monday night football game, plays (or portion(s) thereof)from the prior Sunday's games featuring players in the Contestant'sFantasy Football Team can be inserted into commercial breaks of theMonday night game.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing and the followingdescriptions are exemplary and explanatory only and are not intended tolimit the claimed invention or application thereof in any mannerwhatsoever. For example while the forgoing describes an implementationwithin the context of a football game, the principles described hereinmay be applied to a variety of other sports. Moreover, while thedelivery of customized video is described in the context of thedisclosed Arkiïs™ system, the principles disclosed herein may be appliedto a variety of other systems.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system for providing targetedadvertising.

FIG. 2 is a diagram depicting the selection of Content to deliver to aConsumer based upon the Consumer's Profile that includes preferences andrules, the present context including the time, location, social, andadjacent Content of the User, and the matching Content informationincluding Independent Reviewer Certifications and bid amount.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an example method providing targetedadvertising to a group of Users.

FIG. 4 is an illustration of the generation of an actualize bid offeredby a Marketer for use by content selector.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an example method for participating in a sharedadvertising group comprising a plurality of Users.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an example method providing targetedadvertising to a group of Users including a Champion.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of an exemplary depiction of how Users andMerchants are connected together to provide opportunities to a Userbased upon their location.

FIG. 8 is a diagram depicting the Spectrum of Targeted Content.

FIG. 9 is a diagram of the flow of digital Content to a Consumer.

FIG. 10 is a Venn diagram of the relationship between a Master Profileand Public Profiles.

FIG. 11 is a diagram depicting many of sources of information forbuilding a User's Profile in the Arkiïs™ system including corrections,edits, and deletions by the User.

FIG. 12 is a diagram depicting a User Profile, that can be privacyprotected, and many of the constituent pieces of a User Profile.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of friendship, networking, and social mediaintegration.

FIG. 14 is a diagram of the workings of a Family Friendly Location.

FIG. 15 is a flow chart depicting how Content is created, provided,filtered, and fed back upon.

FIG. 16 is a Venn diagram showing the different kinds of User Profiles.

FIG. 17A is a series of exemplary depictions of the match level betweenthe interests of a Profile and a particular piece of Targeted Content.

FIG. 17B is an exemplary depiction of the match level between theinterests of a Profile and a particular piece of Targeted Content.

FIG. 18 is an information flow diagram in an exemplary Content ranking,Filtering, and alerting system that can be used in conjunction with thetechnologies described herein.

FIG. 19 is a diagram depicting the various Devices that a Consumer mayreceive digital content from along with their ability to provideFeedback back to those Devices.

FIG. 20 is a flowchart of SyncGroup Profiles, that can be privacyprotected.

FIG. 21 is an exemplary SyncGroup Profile creation and notificationsystem that can be used in conjunction with the technologies describedherein.

FIG. 22 is an exemplary depiction of a SyncGroup of three individualscoordinated by their mobile phones with targeted advertising deliveredto a shared First Device.

FIG. 23 is a flowchart of an exemplary depiction of a SyncGroup of threeindividuals coordinated by their mobile phones with targeted advertisingdelivered to a shared First Device.

FIG. 24 is a diagram of the Champion process.

FIG. 25 is a flow chart depicting a Content Producer asking a questionabout Consumers that is answered by a function that takes as input thecontext, the Consumer's Profile, and the producer's information toreceive the probability of a positive answer to the question that isused to inform the decision as to whether to bid and how much to bid tosubmit Content to a particular Consumer for possible consumption by theConsumer.

FIG. 26 is a graph depicting the likelihood a User will purchase a newcar over the time of a year.

FIG. 27 is a diagram depicting the use of 3^(rd) party plug-ins toextend the Arkiïs™ system through published APIs while maintainingsecurity of Profile information.

FIG. 28 is an exemplary depiction of how well a particular piece ofTargeted Content matches the interests of a profile along variousdimensions and in aggregate.

FIG. 29 is the illustration of creating a Product's User customizedmatch level certificate that is presented to the User.

FIG. 30 is an exemplary stream selector system that can be used inconjunction with the technologies described herein.

FIG. 31 is an exemplary bidding scenario wherein the highest biddingadvertiser wins the right to deliver advertising to a public profile andthe public profile shares in the proceeds. It is also an exemplarybidding scenario of a single advertiser bidding on several Profiles atdifferent rates and winning a subset of these bids.

FIG. 32 is a diagram of an exemplary computing system in which somedescribed embodiments can be implemented.

FIG. 33 is an exemplary mobile device that can be used in conjunctionwith the technologies described herein.

FIG. 34 is a flowchart of an example method governing the automatedcollection of data that can be privacy protected.

FIG. 35 is an exemplary cloud computing system that can be used inconjunction with the technologies described herein.

FIG. 36 is a representation of the system components and users: thesystem network and software interface, end users' local computers, andadvertisers.

FIG. 37 is an example GUI (graphical user interface) depicting a searchthrough the system, from the user's perspective.

FIG. 38 is a flowchart depicting the transfer of money and creditthrough the provided online banking system, between the user (who maymaintain anonymity) and the advertiser.

FIG. 39 is a flowchart depicting the Search Intention and the differenteffects caused by selecting its choices.

FIG. 40 is a visual representation of a shipping method that hides theuser's identity from the advertiser supplying a product.

FIG. 41 is a flowchart of a system for purchasing goods online.

FIG. 42 is a visual representation of the Click Value and how its valuecan change.

FIG. 43A is an overview flow chart that illustrates a sports game beingrecorded via various feeds of different perspective and those feedsbeing combined by a video mixer to create a broadcast feed that isextended to include alternate feeds, data, and metadata for transmissionto the Arkiïs™ servers.

FIG. 43B is a flow chart that illustrates reception of the various videoand data feeds and their composition into a personally customized feedfor an Arkiïs™ User.

FIGS. 43C, 43D, and 43E each illustrate example metadata associated witha video clip of a video feed for a play within a game.

FIG. 43F illustrates operation of an exemplary viewing engine.

FIG. 43G illustrates further details of an exemplary database enginewith respect to registering database change notifications.

FIG. 43H illustrates further details of the composition of an exemplaryvideo feed.

FIG. 43I illustrates further details of the composition of an exemplaryaudio feed.

FIG. 43J illustrates further details of an exemplary database engine.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

1. Table of Contents 1. Table of Contents -9- 2. Key Terms -9- 3. Systemfor Providing Targeted Advertising -16- 4. Providing Targeted Content-23- 5. Operational Overview -53- 6. User Profiles -58- 7. AlternateDevice Synchronization -85- 8. Coordination between Devices -90- 9.Sharing Targeted Advertising between Users -95- 10. Providing Targetedand/or Premium Content -117- 11. Providing Feedback on Content, Goods,and Services -122- 12. Providing Payment for Content, Goods, andServices -140- 13. Exemplary General Purpose Computing System -150- 14.Exemplary General Purpose Mobile Device -152- 15. Exemplary GeneralPurpose Cloud Computing System -159- 16. Exemplary Implementations -160-17. Advertising and Fulfillment System -170- 18. Privacy -175- 19.Alternative Advertising and Fulfillment System -178- 20. ProvidingCustomized Entertainment Content -185- 21. Alternatives -200-

2. Key Terms

Certain words within the description of the disclosed system havespecific meanings, and are generally capitalized within the text of thedescription. These words whether in singular or plural form, shall havethe meanings as defined below.

-   Alternate Device: A Device that may provide alternate Targeted    Content to that of a First Device. In some embodiments, the    Alternate Device is a mobile device being used by a single User    where the First Device may be shared by a plurality of Users. Other    Alternate Devices include a DVR, a Roku™ player, and a networked    Blu-Ray player.-   Assertion: A forward-looking declaration of a User's intention to    take future action(s) related to a targeted marketing profile (e.g.    make a purchase, travel, go to college in fall, adopt a baby) and    which may be qualified with a probability (e.g. 80% likely to go to    Europe) and/or a condition (e.g. if my portfolio grows by 10% then I    will buy a new car).-   Business User: An Individual User that is acting on behalf of a    business, non-profit, governmental, or other incorporeal entity.-   Business User Profile: Either a Goods & Services Provider Profile,    Marketer Profile, Content Producer Profile, or Content Provider    Profile.-   Badge: Awarded recognition in a publically visible manner that a    User is independently certified to have achieved an accomplishment.    Sometimes described as an emblem.-   Certifier: A Reviewer that provides independent certification about    suppliers for specific metrics and often is a Non-Governmental    Organization (NGO) or individual.-   Certifier Profile: A collection of delineating information about a    Certifier that may be used by Consumers to filter associated    certification content.-   Consumer: A User or SyncGroup of Users, who can remain anonymous,    that receives content from Content Producers, which may be received    by way of Content Providers and may buy from Goods & Services    Providers.-   Content: Any experiential information consumed by a User, that may    include interactions and/or artistic expression such as video,    audio, still photos, words, comic strips, and live performances.    Content is a continuum from paid premium to targeted advertising    that may pay the User, who can remain anonymous.-   Content Producer: An entity that creates Content for consumption.-   Content Producer Profile: Any delineating information about a    Content Producer that may be used by Consumers to Filter their    Content delivery.-   Content Provider: An entity that delivers Content for consumption.-   Content Provider Profile: Any delineating information about a    Content Provider that may be used by Consumers to Filter their    Content delivery.-   Content Spectrum: The range of available Content that spans from    high-value/Premium Content to low or negative value Content—like    advertising that pays Consumers. A particular Content's value may    vary depending upon Consumer's preferences, context, etc.-   Contestant: A person who competes in at least one Fantasy Sports    league against other Contestants of the same league. A Contestant    may be a User.-   Context Information: Data points, often from a User's Profile, that    can remain private, which may be utilized to deduce the Content    likely being consumed by the Consumer.-   Device: An instrument that reproduces digital Content for a    Consumer.-   Family Friendly Location: A location where all Content being    delivered adheres to Profile Filtering of all detected persons    present.-   Family Friendly Content: Content that may be audited, rated, and/or    judged by a Content Producer, a User, and/or a third party to adhere    to certain individual, family, and/or community standards that one    or more Users may wish to govern.-   Family Friendly Device: A device that may be configured to detect    the presence of minor children with Filtering requirements and    automatically Filter Content to that which satisfies the Filtering    criteria for all the detected children present. Adults may also    configure Filtering requirements for themselves to be protected    through Content filtration.-   Fantasy Football: An exemplary Fantasy Sport wherein the real    players in a Contestant's team are selected from a single    professional football league such as the National Football League    (NFL) and are awarded points according to the activity of those    players within said league.-   Fantasy Football Team: An exemplary Fantasy Sports Team within a    Fantasy Football league.-   Fantasy Sport: A competition (statistical game) in which Contestants    select and manage an imaginary sports team from among the real    players of a professional sport to compete against other Contestants    in a league by scoring points according to the actual    performance/statistics of their imaginary team's players.-   Fantasy Sports Team: The collection of a Contestant's selected real    players within a professional sports league for a particular Fantasy    Sports league wherein such players may usually only appear on a    single team.-   Feedback: Assessment of consumed Content by a Consumer provided    either unsolicited or in response to solicitation by the Content    Producer. Feedback may also be an assessment of a Consumer's    transactional performance by a Goods & Services Provider party of a    transaction.-   Filter: The control of blocking Consumer visibility of Products,    Content, Marketers, Reviewers, and Content Producers based upon    preferences in a Consumer's Profile.-   First Device: The initial Device or Devices a User engages with in a    Content consumption session whose Content may be superseded by the    addition of one or more Alternate Devices. An Alternate Device may    itself be the First Device of a further superseding Alternate    Device.-   Generic Advertisement: Generic Content where the Content is    Marketing Content.-   Generic Content: Content that is not individually Targeted toward a    Consumer.-   Goods & Services Provider: An entity, such as a manufacturer or    service provider, that sells goods and/or services for consumption.-   Goods & Services Provider Profile: A collection of delineating    information about a Goods & Services Provider that may be used by    Consumers to Filter associated Marketing Content.-   Independent Reviewer Certification: A trusted check on facts and    source for specific comparative metrics about a Provider, Product,    or service, often provided by an NGO or individual.-   Individual User: A User that is an individual person, representing    themselves that can maintain their anonymity.-   Individual User Profile: A collection of delineating information    about an Individual User.-   Market Request: A process by which Consumers publish desires and/or    commitments to buy goods or services for which there is nothing    exactly matching and presently available. This allows Users to    extend their values into the marketplace to influence the way goods    and services are created for them. Consumers may also publish Market    Requests related to Product Champions, Champion performances,    reviews, or certifications.-   Marketer: An entity that targets Marketing Content to select    Consumers. (Sometimes described as an advertiser.)-   Marketer Profile: A collection of delineating information about a    Marketer that may be used by Consumers to Filter their Marketing    Content.-   Marketing Content: Content created in an attempt to induce a    Consumer action and that may be the basis for a payment to the    Consumer and may be targeted.-   Master Profile: A private Profile connected to a single User that    helps to delineate their individual identity.-   Participants: Consumers, Reviewers, Marketers, Content Providers,    Content

Producers, and Goods & Services Providers that are included in theArkiïs™ system.

-   Physical Proximity: A plurality of Users in the same general    physical location (near each other, such as in the same room) at the    same time such that Users may readily share one or more Devices or    interact with each other such as by smelling, touching, talking, or    hand signals.-   Premium Content: Content that a Consumer usually pays to consume and    which may be targeted. Broadcast television is also premium and paid    for by the included generic advertisements.-   Primary Content: Content for which Arkiïs™ Targeted Content may be    overlaid.-   Product: Goods or services including Content or anything that can be    consumed, viewed, used, or received.-   Product Champion: A Consumer that promotes, compares, or disparages    Products to other Consumers and may be compensated by an interested    Marketer. (Sometimes described as a Champion)-   Profile: A collection of information that delineates an identity and    can be accessed for targeting purposes while remaining anonymous.-   Provider: A Goods & Services Provider, Reviewer, Product Champion,    or Content Producer. An entity that supplies something to a User.-   Reviewer: A User or SyncGroup of Users who provide detailed Feedback    related to transactions, Content, goods, services, or others'    Feedback.-   Reviewer Profile: A collection of delineating information about a    Reviewer that may be used by Consumers to Filter associated review    Content.-   Sub Profile: A User-designated subset (possibly an improper subset)    of their Master Profile's demographic information about them that is    used for the purpose of helping select the Content they receive.    This may contain false information in order to protect a User's    privacy. Sub Profiles may be private or public.-   SyncGroup: A plurality of Users who join together into a group to    synchronize their consumption of Content and who may elect to    maintain a group Profile. Sometimes described as a shared    advertising group.-   SyncGroup Profile: A Profile that is created to identify a SyncGroup    that is persistent or ongoing.-   Targeted Content: Content that is selected based upon a Consumer's    Profile information.-   Targeted Marketing Content: Marketing Content that is also Targeted    Content.-   Targeted Premium Content: Premium Content that is also Targeted    Content.-   User: A person who logs into the Arkiïs™ system, on behalf of    themselves, another individual, or another entity and can maintain a    privacy protected identity.-   User Profile: A Profile that is created to identify a User.-   Visualization: A compound pictogram that communicates how well a    Product matches a Consumer's stated values, ethics, goals, and    standards. (Also referred to as a certificate or graphic.)-   Virtual Proximity: A plurality of Users consuming the same Content    at the same time.

3. System for Providing Targeted Advertising

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an example system 100 for providingtargeted advertising solutions to implement the Arkiïs™ system. Anoperational overview of the system 100 is provided in Section 3—Systemfor Providing Targeted Advertising and describes providing targetedadvertising solutions to Users of computing devices (e.g., mobilecomputing devices) that are also receiving Content on a First Device(e.g., viewing a television). Providing targeted advertising solutionscan comprise providing Targeted Content (e.g., targeted advertisingcontent and/or other types of Content provided in association withtargeted advertising) to Users of computing devices.

The example system 100 comprises a Targeted Content computing system110. The Targeted Content computing system 110 can comprise varioustypes of computing resources (e.g., computer servers, database servers,streaming media servers, networking resources, and/or other types ofcomputing resources) for providing targeted advertising solutions touser devices 160 and their associated users. For example, the TargetedContent computing system 110 can be implemented as a cloud computingsystem.

The example system 100 also comprises User Devices 160. The User Devices160 are computing Devices associated with Users (e.g., mobile phones,smartphones, tablet devices, smartwatches, etc.).

The system 100 also comprises a First Device 140 (e.g., a television oranother type of display Device). The Device 140 can be a shared FirstDevice (e.g., a display that is shared by the Users of the User Devices160, such as a television in a home being viewed by multiple Users or atelevision in a business such as a sports bar or a movie screen in atheater). In some situations, multiple First Devices can be provided(e.g., multiple televisions can be viewed by multiple Users in a sharedviewing system, such as a sports bar).

While mobile devices offer a quick way to bootstrap the Arkiïs™ system,in the long run, it will be easier for Users to have Arkiïs™functionality integrated with the devices that provide Content to FirstDevices that can be simultaneously shared with Users present. There areseveral ways this may be accomplished, including:

-   -   Custom DVR boxes (or audio only equivalent, DAR) that interleave        live broadcast feeds with prerecorded Targeted Marketing        Content. In some embodiments, the live broadcast is time shifted        by several seconds to allow more seamless feed integration,        commercial detection, and synchronization of targeted        advertising end (including Consumer Feedback). Such buffering        adjusts automatically from one commercial break to the next to        keep the live lag to a minimal amount sufficient to allow        seamless integration of the live and pre-recorded streams. A        Custom DVR adds integration with the Arkiïs™ system to a        traditional DVR by allowing one or more Arkiïs™ Profiles to be        associated with the DVR. When consuming Content, an Arkiïs™        Profile is activated either by manual designation on the DVR,        one or more Consumers designating to Arkiïs™ their current First        Device source as being the Custom DVR, automatically by facial        recognition of audience members, etc. The active Profile of a        Custom DVR determines the Targeted Marketing Content presented        to Consumers. The Custom DVR is in communication with the        Arkiïs™ cloud servers to receive Targeted Marketing Content for        presentation and for recording for future presentation. The        Custom DVR keeps track of the Profile(s) to which Targeted        Marketing Content applies. Such Content may have expiration        dates by which time it must be received or deleted. The Custom        DVR communicates to the Arkiïs™ servers information about which        Content is presented at what time. The Custom DVR may detect        commercial segment start/entry and end/exit points in any of        several methods including through local video feed algorithmic        analysis, communicating its current primary source feed channel        to the Arkiïs™ servers and receiving notification of segment        start and end points as computed by the Arkiïs™ cloud, detecting        primary source feed signal encoding of entry and exit points,        etc.    -   Remote virtual cloud DVR technology where the DVR functionality        is provided in the cable owner's facilities and with licensing        agreements with Content Providers, efficiencies are achieved        that allow for a single copy (due to compensation agreements        with copyright holders) of all Content to be stored and shared        among all Users. This allows Users to not have to specify their        intention to record a show in advance since a dedicated copy is        not needed for each Consumer.    -   Blu-Ray streaming application or custom Roku™ channel to provide        Targeted Content that is interleaved with traditional live        streaming Primary Content sources.

Customized hardware to provide the alternate Content presented to Usersof the system may also include sensing equipment such as video cameras,microphones, and Near Field Communication (NFC). These sensors are usedto dynamically determine the consuming audience so that Targeted Contentmay be automatically adjusted and optimized for group consumption.

Alternatively, in some alternate embodiments, rather than having theFirst Device's streaming source communicate directly with nearbyAlternate Devices or deduce its audience through environmental detectionstrategies (e.g., video cameras, microphones, etc.), coordination caninstead be done with the help of the Arkiïs™ servers. The coordinatedgroup consumption of Alternate Devices is facilitated by the Arkiïs™servers and thus the Content delivery device for the First Device may beaware and join such groups with hints from the source Device and itslinked Profile.

The example system 100 supports providing Targeted Content solutions.For example, the Device 140 can present Content (e.g., televisionprograms, movies, streaming content, advertising, and/or other types ofaudio and/or video Content) for consumption by Users associated with theUser Devices 160. The Content can be received from a number of sourcesfor presentation by the Device 140. For example, the Content can bereceived via a connecting network 130 (e.g., as streaming television orstreaming video Content supported by other computing systems 120). TheContent can also be received from other Content sources 150 (e.g.,Content Provider, over-the-air broadcast television, cable television,etc.).

The example system 100 supports providing Targeted Marketing Content toUsers in place of Generic Advertisements (i.e. non-targeted). Forexample, the Device 140 can present Content (e.g., television Contentand/or other Content with associated Generic Advertisements) to theUsers of the User Devices 160. During a Generic Advertisement (e.g., ageneric commercial), a targeted advertisement can be presented to theUsers in example system 100. In some implementations, the targetedadvertisement is presented on the Device 140 instead of the GenericAdvertisement (e.g., the targeted advertisement can be inserted by theTargeted Content computing system 110, by other computing systems 120,or by an optional media device 142 such as a set-top box, DVR, cablebox, streaming media player, etc.). In other implementations, thetargeted advertisement is presented on the User Devices 160 (e.g.,provided by the Targeted Content computing system 110 for reproductionat the User Devices 160). The User Devices 160 can reproduce the sametargeted advertisement or different advertisements. The User Devices 160can reproduce targeted advertisements alone (e.g., while the Device 140is reproducing a Generic Advertisement) as well as in combination withthe Device (e.g., while the Device 140 is reproducing the same or adifferent targeted advertisement).

In the event that connectivity is lost between the First Device and theArkiïs™ Content servers (e.g., the power goes out in your home), theArkiïs™ Content feed being broadcast may automatically fail over to anyAlternate Devices (e.g., smartphones) that are synchronized with theFirst Device. Such connectivity loss may be detected in many waysincluding: explicit designation by the User on their Alternate Device,the failure of the First Device to respond to a ping-like request in areasonable time period, or the loss of ability for the Alternate Deviceto see the First Device such as on a local Wi-Fi network. In a preferredembodiment, if complete connectivity is lost and even the AlternateDevices are not reachable (or none are present), the Arkiïs™ Contentservers may automatically begin recording the Content being consumed forsubsequent resumption at the point of disconnect. In the case offailover to an Alternate Device, the servers back up/record the Contentso as to resume on the Alternate Device at the point that contact waslost with the First Device even though it may take several seconds forthe failover to be negotiated.

In a preferred embodiment, each Device maintains communication with theArkiïs™ cloud servers through a heartbeat mechanism whereby at periodicregular intervals (e.g. once per second) each Device notifies the cloudservers what Content is being presented to the Consumers on the Device.When the Arkiïs™ servers stop receiving the heartbeat and no shutdownnotification was just sent, Device connectivity to the servers is deemedto be lost.

The example system 100 supports targeted advertising in a group setting.For example, the Users of the User Devices 160 can be grouped into astatic or dynamic shared advertising group (e.g., based on variouscriteria, such as Physical Proximity, Virtual Proximity, explicitgrouping by the Users, grouping based on receiving the same Content onthe Device 140, or based upon the group's values, ethics, goals,standards, stated Consumer Assertions, etc.). Targeted advertising canbe provided to the shared advertising group (i.e. SyncGroup). Forexample, Profile information can be used by the Targeted Contentcomputing system 110 to select targeted advertisements (e.g., based onthe Profiles, payout information, and/or other criteria) to be presentedto the Users (e.g., on the User Devices 160 and/or overlaid on theDevice 140). Profile information can include information about a Uservoluntarily uploaded by the same User for targeting purposes, it canalso include User authorized aggregation of information collected fromdisparate sources, and it can omit information deleted by a User. Forexample, a group may indicate intent to only ever purchase certifiedorganic food, or non-GMO food. Such a Profile may prevent such a groupfrom receiving fast-food advertisements or the like. Nor would afast-food advertiser likely desire to push its advertising to such agroup. Thus, both Consumer and Marketer benefit and the system gainsincreased economic efficiencies.

The example system 100 can determine the specific Content being watchedby the Users in order to provided targeted advertisements at appropriatetimes (e.g., during generic advertisements). For example, the TargetedContent computing system 110 can use Context Information to determinethe specific Content being received by the Users of the User Devices160. The Context Information can include various types of information,such as information provided by the Users of the User Devices 160 (e.g.,the Users can enter the specific program, channel, time, and/or otherinformation about the Content), location information (e.g., location ofthe user devices 160), Profile information, information from the mediadevice 142, information from other computing systems 120 (e.g.,programming and commercial information provided by a streaming service),and/or other types of information.

Custom DVR hardware, as described above, may allow the Arkiïs™ User toseamlessly consume Targeted Marketing or Alternate Premium Content thatis interleaved into live broadcast streams (e.g. television or radio) tooverlay the generic advertising that such streams contain. The Arkiïs™User may log into their Arkiïs™ Profile on the DVR and the Arkiïs™server may then provide Targeted Content feeds that are queued up whilethe User is consuming Premium Content. When a commercial break isdetected in the Primary Content feed, the DVR may seamlessly switch tothe Targeted Marketing Content. Based upon the Arkiïs™ User's Profile,either Targeted Marketing Content may be automatically selected or theUser may be given a menu of subjects and how much they would pay, andhow well other Users have rated them. From this menu, the User may beallowed to choose the Content they would like to consume. A referencecertificate or symbol may be shown to further permit a User to quicklyevaluate the rating of a Product or Products to match their interests(such as product's relevancy or usefulness to their needs) and values.On the other side, a potential provider of Targeted Marketing Contentmay either decrease or increase the likelihood of sending information toa Consumer via the use of an integrity rating tied or linked to theConsumer which indicate the relationship between the Consumer's statedpurchasing intentions (i.e. Assertions) and timelines and their actualpurchasing conduct. The Marketing Content may be automatically packed tofit into the projected commercial space of the live feed. Based on aUser's Profile preferences, the live feed may be queued up when itreturns from commercial break until the current Targeted MarketingContent advertisement completes. The buffer on the live feed mayactively be managed to drive it back towards a zero second delaycompared to the live feed.

In some preferred embodiments, Arkiïs™ may provide a custom hardware DVRthat accepts broadcast, cable, or satellite feeds and dynamicallydetects commercial breaks on the fly to substitute previously downloadedTargeted Marketing Content that is queued up on the DVR.

In other embodiments, cable providers may provide an interface box inthe User's home or business to access DVR capability. Such cloud basedDVRs may be housed and maintained in data centers maintained by thecable company and accessed on demand over the Internet.

FIG. 2 provides a flow diagram to illustrate operation of certainembodiments. In FIG. 2 Arkiïs™ 201 servers include functional modules aUser Profile 202 includes preferences and rules regarding the User suchas certification preferences. Further details for the User Profile 202are provided in connection with FIG. 12. A source for Content, such asdescribed in further detail in connection with FIG. 15 is shown at 204.The Content 206 includes meta-data regarding the Content and the sourceof the Content. A Content Producer and Content Provider are showngenerally in connection with Content 206. The Content Producer andContent Provider may be the same or different entities. As set forth inthe definitions in Section 2—Key Terms the Content Producer creates theContent and the Content Provider delivers the Content. The ContentProducer and/or Content Provider and/or a third entity receives inputfrom the content selector 208 and payment module 216. These inputs areshown generally for purposes of illustrating the general flow ofinformation and the exact manner in which the inputs are processed maytake a variety of forms.

Content selector 208 operates to select Content for delivery to the Usershown at 210. The content selector 208 receives portions of the UserProfile 202 and other information regarding the present context 212 ofthe User. Present context 212 may include the User's recentcommunication history culled from their caller ID log, Skyping, texting,etc. and the identity of communicating parties and the nature of thoseparties' typical interaction for the present context as captured intheir Profile and the vocabulary, tone of voice, etc. in thecommunication (e.g., Sally's mood usually improves after communicatingwith her mom, for example, they shared a joke with each other andlaughing can be detected in the communication). Content might also befiltered out at one time based on context, but not at another time, in adifferent context. Similarly, Content might be graded differently indifferent contexts. Rating manager 214, generates an integrity ratingthat indicates a correlation between the User's actual purchase of goodsand services and the intention indicated in that Assertion by the User.The rating manager compares the integrity rating to an integrity ratingrequirement that may be provided by the Content Provider. Furtherdetails of the operation of rating manager 214 are provided in Section11—Providing Feedback on Content, Goods, and Services. Payment module216 computes credits and debits that are indicative of payments to bemade to the User for consuming advertising. The payment module isresponsive to the meta-data associated with the Content 206. Furtherdetails of payment module 216 are provided in Section 12—ProvidingPayment for Content, Goods, and Services.

The Content selector 208 receives Content 206 and retrieves from theUser Profile consumption preferences that indicate goods and servicesthat the User prefers. The Content selector 208 performs a comparisonbetween the retrieved consumption preferences and meta-data associatedwith the Content 206. The comparison yields a match level indicator thatindicates a correlation (which may take a variety of known forms)between the Content and the consumption preferences. The match levelindicator is then employed to determine whether to provide the Contentto the User. For example, the User may have provided in their preferencea threshold that must be exceeded by the match level indicator in orderto be provided the Content. Alternatively, the User may choose to bepresented with all Content, or Content that exceeds the threshold and bepermitted to decide whether to experience the Content. The presentationto the User of the match level indicator (or Visualization) may beperformed in accordance with the embodiments shown in FIGS. 17A, 17B,and 29.

FIG. 4 illustrates the generation of an actualize bid offered by aMarketer for use by Content selector 208 to select Content 206. As seenin FIG. 4 the Marketer 402 supplies a bid 404 (that may include a payoutformula) in connection with Content 406. A deliver bid module 420receives the bid 404, the Content 406, along with context 412, and userprofile information 414, together with the marketing performance score410. The deliver bid module 420 operates in accordance with a variety ofknown techniques to determine whether to deliver (yes 426) the bid 404or to not deliver (422) it (no 424). In embodiments where the bid 404includes a variable function, the function is evaluated as part of thedeliver bid module 420 together with one or more variable inputs (406,410, 412, 414) to compute an actual bid amount to be offered. (SeeSection 6—User Profiles paragraph [0195] for examples where a MarketingPerformance Score (410) or context (412) affect how much a Marketer iswilling to offer for actualize bid (430). Also see Section 12—ProvidingPayment for Content, Goods, and Services paragraphs [0329] and [0330]for examples of formulas in bid 404 and bid delivery 420.) The actualizebid offered 430 is delivered to content selector 208. Additional detailsof marketing performance score 410 maybe found in Section 6—UserProfiles. The actualize bid offered 430 is compared by content selector210 to criteria pertaining to the User to determine if the Content 206is to be delivered to the User.

4. Providing Targeted Content

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an exemplary method 300 for providing TargetedContent to a group of Users. For example, the example method 300 can beperformed by one or more computing devices (e.g., by the TargetedContent computing system 110 described above in relation to FIG. 1).

At 310, a plurality of Users is grouped into a shared advertising group(SyncGroup) and can be affected through use of a temporary or permanentgrouping variable. For example, the plurality of Users (e.g., along withtheir associated computing devices, such as smartphones) can be grouped,manually or automatically, based on Physical Proximity, VirtualProximity, explicit grouping, consuming a shared First Device at thesame location, etc.

At 320, one or more Targeted Content are determined for presentation(e.g., audio and/or video playback) to the shared advertising group. Forexample, the one or more Targeted Content can be presented on a FirstDevice (e.g., a television on a home or business setting) and/or onpersonal Alternate Devices (e.g., on displays of the computing devices,such as smartphones, of the Users in the shared advertising group). Theone or more Targeted Content can be determined based, at least in part,on Profiles or only voluntarily supplied or only authorized informationin Profiles of the Users in the shared advertising group which may beselected to maximize payout amount for one or more of the Users,selected based on a minimum payout amount across all Users of the group,or selected based on other criteria such as Physical Proximity using GPSor similar data where the User may have given permission to use suchcriteria for the purpose of receiving Targeted Content.

At 330, the one or more Targeted Content are provided for presentationto the shared advertising group. The Targeted Content can be presented(i.e. reproduced) on a First Device and/or on personal computing Devices(e.g., smartphone displays). The Targeted Content can be presented on aDevice instead of generic advertisements (e.g., in place of generictelevision commercials that are not targeted to the shared advertisinggroup).

The most basic alternative Content is substitution of the genericmass-market advertising with that which is targeted specifically to theConsumer based upon their Arkiïs™ Profile. Given the estimated amount oftime available before the live broadcast feed returns, Arkiïs™ mayoptimize the selection of targeted advertising to fit in the availabletime duration. In the case that the specific duration to be filled isnot exactly known, the server may heuristically pack the space with thetargeted commercials. Longer commercials or ones that may not beinterrupted due to advertiser requirements may be packed at thebeginning of an indeterminate commercial segment break while shorterones or those for which a partial message may effectively be deliveredmay be packed towards the end. As each message draws towards an end, thefollow on messages may be repacked to account for any new informationthat affects the time of the break's end.

When consuming live broadcasts with commercial breaks of indeterminatelength, the Arkiïs™ system may allow a User to configure their Profileto allow the targeted advertising to overrun the commercial break by ashort period and automatically pause the live feed when it returns andawait the completion of the targeted advertising overrun before resumingthe now slightly delayed live feed. Any such overrun is subtracted outof the following commercial break. In one embodiment, when consumingtargeted advertising on their personal mobile device, the User's mobiledevice may automatically send the remote control codes to pause the livefeed when it returns, and resume play and unmute it when the targetedadvertisement completes on their mobile device. This is most useful whentheir First Device is not playing an integrated Arkiïs™ feed.

The producer of a targeted advertisement may encode reentry points(i.e., rewind points) for their message that a Consumer must return towhen a targeted advertisement is interrupted (e.g., due to return tolive play or a Consumer's override action) and subsequently resumed tosatisfy the originally promised consuming payout. These rewind pointsmay be stored within Arkiïs™ servers, or may be recognized by softwareas an advertisement is played. By default, the beginning of anadvertisement is used for reentry when resuming an interrupted message.(Note that some message payouts are context dependent and thus ifresumed at a later point in time, the beneficial context may bediminished or gone and the payout computation may have consequentlychanged. In such cases, the User may request or the Marketer and/orproducer may require deferral of resumption until the same or similarcircumstances have returned or disadvantageous circumstances havedisappeared.) When reentry points are supplied, by default, uponresumption of a targeted message, the first reentry point that directlyprecedes the point of interruption may be generally used and the messagemay resume play from that entry point. However, the User may choose toignore the reentry point and instead resume at the exact point at whichthey left off at the risk of sacrificing some of the payout asconfigured by the Marketer that is supplying the message. Selection ofhow to resume may automatically be configured in the User's Profile orspecifically chosen in an instance. In one embodiment, Consumer overrideactions include: simply stopping a message and doing something else,pausing a message briefly before returning to it, and even common DVRactions such as variable fast-forward/rewind, and skip forward/backward.In some embodiments, the Content Producer may encode more complexreentry point information, for example, specifying different reentrypoints that vary as a function of how long the Consumer has been away(e.g., how much time has elapsed since the message was originallyinterrupted) or vary depending upon the User's Profile information (suchas their integrity rating as to their actual behavior versus theirAssertions over time) which may predict the Consumer's likelihood ofeffecting a purchase or vary depending upon what other Content theConsumer has consumed such as other messages from the same Marketer.

In addition to targeted advertisement selection based upon optimizingpayout and space, an individual's Arkiïs™ Profile may weight otherfactors such as the level of humor in a commercial, or the category thecommercial falls into. They may also combine criteria (e.g., give me afunny commercial that pays the most). Their Profile may also indicatewhen and how they wish to consume commercials. Additionally, a Consumermay have a pattern related to their most likely time or day or seasonsof purchases, and/or for what items are more likely to be purchased andwhen. This data may be added to their Profile and criteria that aProvider may use to affect what Targeted Marketing Content they send orpush and the amount they may offer to pay or charge for consuming suchContent.

The following example describes an embodiment of the disclosed system:Greg's Profile, stored in the Arkiïs™ cloud servers, shows that he iswilling to watch ads during football games placed only at time-outs andduring half time. Further, he requires that only one ad may be servedper break period and that it should be no longer than 30 seconds unlessthe advertiser is willing to pay quadruple or more than his averagepayout rate over the last seven days as computed by the Arkiïs™ cloudservers. If the ads are insufficient to cover the broadcast Contentcost, he wishes to take the remainder due out of his Arkiïs™ Profileearnings balance, or if his balance is insufficient, to accept justenough more advertisements to keep his balance positive at all times.During the times that the regular broadcast feed is delivering genericcommercials and Greg is not watching targeted advertising, he is insteadwatching behind the scenes extra Targeted Premium Content that isstreamed to his Device from the Arkiïs™ cloud servers. This includesextra commentary and interviews that are oriented towards his favoritefootball team. The Arkiïs™ cloud servers automatically charge hisArkiïs™ Profile for the extra Targeted Premium Content he consumes. Gregmay have a high integrity rating related to his Assertions about hisfootball viewing behavior and his purchases that are correlated toadvertisements presented related to football, as he may never miss agame of his favorite teams and often buys Products advertised duringgames. Thus, Providers may adjust their Targeted Marketing Content andpayouts because Greg's rating indicates that he will be watching a gameregularly and tends to purchase items that are being advertised to himduring a game. Thus, his integrity rating can be related to the ContentGreg consumes and to his purchases.

Celebrities (e.g. LeBron James or Miley Cyrus) may be listed in yourProfile of people you admire, trust, and like to listen to. Arkiïs™Profile settings may indicate that if they are a spokesperson for acommercial that you will want to consume it regardless of other criteriain your Profile. Because you love a particular sports figure, artist,singer, or other person you know, you may agree to watch messages thatwould otherwise not meet your Profile criteria.

Example packing of a commercial break during live football with noassistance from the television broadcaster:

-   -   During Premium Content consumption, the User's Device has        downloaded targeted advertising in advance to prepare for the        next commercial break:        -   One 120 second commercial requiring detailed Feedback        -   Two 90 second commercials requiring quick Feedback        -   Two 60 second commercials requiring quick Feedback        -   One 50 second commercial with optional Feedback        -   One 30 second commercial requiring quick Feedback        -   One 30 second commercial with optional Feedback        -   Two 15 second commercials with optional Feedback    -   Based upon historical sampling, the server begins by assuming        the break will be between 3 and 5 minutes long.    -   The User's Device begins with the two minute commercial.    -   After the commercial, the User spends 30 seconds answering        detailed questions about the commercial just consumed.    -   During the break, the server has been monitoring the live        television feed and 2.5 minutes have now elapsed. The live        broadcast is now on its fourth commercial that is recognized to        be a 60 second spot with 45 seconds remaining. The server        directs the User's Device to now select the 30 second spot that        requires quick Feedback.    -   The User's Device begins the 30 second commercial.    -   After the commercial, the User spends 10 seconds answering one        quick question.    -   The server has 5 seconds remaining on the 45 second commercial        in the live feed and directs the User's Device to begin one of        the 15 second commercials and be prepared to terminate        mid-stream if the Premium Content returns in five seconds.    -   The User's Device begins the 15 second commercial.    -   The server detects a 60 second spot begin in the live feed and        directs the User's Device to play the 50 second commercial next.    -   The User's Device begins the 50 second commercial.    -   The server directs the User's Device to play the 2^(nd) 15        second commercial next.    -   The server detects the resumption of live Premium Content and        directs the User's Device to halt the targeted advertisement        based upon the User's preference to not delay the live feed.    -   The User's Device fades one second into the 15 second spot.    -   All commercials that were not used are retained for a subsequent        commercial break and the very briefly shown 2^(nd) 15 second        spot is also retained for reuse at a later time.

Once an Arkiïs™ User's Alternate Device, usually a mobile Device, issynchronized with the First Device, they may receive Targeted Content ontheir Alternate Device to substitute for or overlay on top of theGeneric Content (i.e., not targeted) delivered through their ContentProvider. In some preferred embodiments when such Content is beingoverlaid on a User's Alternate Device, their Alternate Device may beconfigured to automatically subdue or mute the First Device using remotecontrol technology during consumption of the alternate stream on theirAlternate Device. Ideally, the broadcaster has a cooperative deal withArkiïs™ so that they transmit commercial intention information as itbecomes available, of when a break to commercial will begin, and when itwill end. However, lacking that, the breaks can be detectedlive/extemporaneously as done by the AdSkip Project(phys.org/news/2012-08-commercial-free-tv-device-technology-contest.html).Additionally, previously known commercial messages may be detected onthe Arkiïs™ servers when they are being rebroadcast for the purpose ofknowing how long such messages last (e.g., 30 seconds or 60 seconds) andthus providing a more accurate gauge of when the broadcast commercialswill end. Detection of previously known commercial messages may becarried out through video recognition methods (for example, ordered ornon-ordered tree matching algorithms) or audio recognition methods (forexample, hidden Markov modeling or spectrogram/acoustic fingerprintcomparison). When receiving live broadcasts such as sporting eventswhere the broadcaster is an Arkiïs™ partner, the broadcaster may providelive Alternate Premium Content (e.g. additional behind the scenesinterviews or commentary and game analysis) that is coordinated with thegeneric live broadcast. Such feeds may also be delivered on a User'sAlternate Device. Such feeds may also be auxiliary and continue inparallel with the broadcast Generic Content and afford the Usersimultaneous alternate feeds on the live action.

In anticipation of commercial breaks, the Arkiïs™ Alternate Deviceapplication may download substitute Targeted Marketing or AlternatePremium Content. Downloading may occur in advance, during the PrimaryContent's non-commercial portions, and/or during the breaks themselves.Given that the non-commercial portion of a typical broadcast program istypically much longer than the commercial sequences (approximately 2.75times as long), Targeted Content may be downloaded in less than realtime. Thus, Targeted Content may be shown in high-definition even if theUser's Alternate Device connection does not have enough band-width tosupport real-time high-definition downloads; assuming the above premiumto advertising content ratio, overlaid Targeted Content may be shown ata quality level that exceeds the User's real-time bandwidth limitationby a factor of almost four. If an Arkiïs™ User configures theirconsuming to not completely fill the commercial time with TargetedContent, this ratio grows even higher and allows for even higher qualityContent (e.g., higher resolution video). For example, a User may leaveduring the commercial break to use a bathroom and get a snack to eat.

At the detected beginning of a generic commercial in a broadcast stream,the Alternate Device application may turn on the interface, for examplethe screen(stackoverflow.com/questions/9569529/android-face-detector-using-android-camera)through the remote-control behavior described previously, and await Userattention to begin the targeted ad's playback. If their Alternate Devicedoes not support that, it may await a touch of the play button on theAlternate Device's interface.

In the following example, embodiments of Targeted Content selection aredescribed. John is a junior at Northeastern University and has gone tothe local sports bar to watch his home team of the San Francisco 49ersplay the New England Patriots. He has logged into Arkiïs™ using hissmartphone and his smartphone has automatically detected that he iswatching football by listening to the room and detecting the audio feedof the game in a Shazam-like or IntoNow-like manner and/or John pointinghis smartphone camera at the screen to detect the game by matching thescreenshot or video feed to match the video analogously to how audio ismatched. The application determines from his Wi-Fi, GPS and/ormicrophone that he is also in a noisy location (a sports bar) and thathis Bluetooth headset is not turned on and/or paired; therefore, duringgame play, his phone downloads from the sports bar's wireless Ethernetconnection the substitute targeted advertisements that he will watchduring the next commercial break. The targeted ads are selected for Johnby Arkiïs™ based upon his Profile and to best fit his contextuallocation of a noisy bar, being ones that do not depend upon the audioportion to best deliver their message. While the television is showing aCoke commercial, John sees a Pepsi® commercial on his phone thatfeatures references to his favorite team, the San Francisco 49ers. Atthe end of the Pepsi® ad, John is presented with a coupon for $1 off aPepsi® at the bar in the next ten minutes. He turns to the bartender andpresents the coupon on his smartphone that they accept and give him $1off the price of a Pepsi®. He then rates the Pepsi® commercial and isoffered the option to view an alternative Pepsi® commercial to compareagainst the first. He accepts on his phone and watches the alternate. Atthe end he provides a side-by-side rating of the first versus the secondPepsi® commercial along ten metrics provided by Pepsi®. He then checkshis earnings in the Arkiïs™ app to see that the last comparison earnedhim $2 and that three minutes are projected to remain in this commercialbreak. He decides to forgo further commercials and instead use thebathroom.

The disclosed system allows for an individual to provide simple targetedadvertising that may require little effort to produce (e.g., a simplevideo, web page, or email message). Such may be the case for selling aused item or their unique artwork. One may wish to sell a used Mercedes®and can create a simple video showing the car, along with some textdetailing its history, and a link to a free CARFAX® report on the car.This simple marketing message can be targeted to individuals at theseller's choosing. Their query criteria might include those who livenear the seller, have bought used cars from a private seller in thepast, have sufficient income to afford the car, have indicated they arein the market for a Mercedes® class of car, and have a track record ofperforming that exceeds 85%. They may decide they are willing to pay $2for such viewers. They may choose alternate criteria along withalternate payouts; they may also allow anyone to view the ad for free.

The targeted advertisements can be presented to the shared advertisinggroup (at 330) at the same time as generic advertisements (e.g.,inserted on a shared First Device in place of the generic advertisementsand/or presented on personal computing devices of the Users). In orderto present the targeted advertisements at the same (e.g., substantiallysimultaneous) time as the generic advertisements, the specific Contentbeing watched by the Users of the shared advertising group can bedetermined. For example, the specific Content being watched (e.g., on ashared First Device) can be determined based on Context Information. Forexample, the Context Information can include location information forthe Users in the group, time and date information, audio informationfrom the Content being watched, video information from the Content beingwatched, Profile information associated with the Users of the group,explicit selection of Content (e.g., program name, channel, network,time, etc.) by one or more of the Users, and/or other types of ContextInformation.

The Users of the shared advertising group can provide Feedback regardingthe targeted advertisements. For example, Feedback may be used to adjustpayout amount that the Users will receive. Feedback can be received fromone or more of the Users of the shared advertising group independently(e.g., via each User's computing device). Feedback can also be receivedfrom Users jointly (e.g., a number of the Users can agree on jointFeedback).

In some implementations, one or more Users of a shared advertising groupcan opt-out of a particular targeted advertisement being provided to thegroup. For example, if a specific User does not wish to view aparticular targeted advertisement, then the specific User can opt-out ofviewing the particular targeted advertisement. For example, the specificUser who opts-out can be presented with a different targetedadvertisement (e.g., an individually targeted advertisement) than thetargeted advertisement being presented to the remainder of the sharedadvertising group. The different targeted advertisement that ispresented to the specific User who opts-out can be selected, forexample, based on priority information (e.g., the highest payoutadvertisement that fits in the duration of the targeted advertisementbeing presented to the remainder of the group). Or, a different targetedadvertisement may be employed in response to a User's values, ethics orstandards.

In some implementations, targeted advertisements are selected based, atleast in part, on duration (e.g., to fit within the duration of ageneric advertisement). Selection of targeted advertisements can alsotake into account time needed for Feedback (e.g., a time period, such as15 seconds, can be saved for Feedback). For example, if a genericadvertisement is 1 minute in duration, then a targeted advertisement canbe selected that is 45 seconds in duration with 15 seconds remaining forUser Feedback. Feedback can be provided after the targeted advertisement(e.g., immediately following the targeted advertisement) and/or Feedbackcan be provided at a later time (e.g., after the User is finishedconsuming Content).

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of an exemplary method 500 for participating in ashared content advertising group comprising a plurality of Users. Forexample, the example method 500 can be performed by one or morecomputing devices (e.g., by the user devices 160 described above inrelation to FIG. 1).

At 510 a computing device (e.g., a mobile computing device associatedwith a User, such as a mobile phone or tablet device) is associated witha shared advertising group. The shared advertising group comprises aplurality of Users (including the User of the computing device) andtheir associated computing devices. The computing device can beassociated with the shared advertising group based on various criteria,such as sharing the same general physical location, sharing the samecontent at the same time, explicit association by the User of theDevice, etc.

At 520, the computing device provides Context Information associatedwith Content being consumed by the User. For example, the ContextInformation can be received from the User (e.g., entered via a userinterface of the computing device). The Context Information can includelocation information of the computing device and/or other devices in thegroup, time and date information, audio information from the Contentbeing watched, video information from the Content being watched, Profileinformation associated with the User and/or other Users in the group,explicit selection of Content (e.g., program name, channel, network,time, etc.) by the User and/or other Users in the group, and/or othertypes of Context Information).

At 530, one or more targeted advertisements are reproduced by thecomputing device. The one or more advertisements are selected forpresentation to the shared advertising group based, at least in part, onProfile information of the Users of the group. The targetedadvertisements can be reproduced on the computing device at the sametime as generic advertisements are reproduced on a shared First Device(e.g., a shared television being watched by the Users of the sharedadvertising group).

At 540, Feedback is received from the User regarding one or more of thereproduced targeted advertisements. For example, the Feedback can beused, at least in part, to determine payout amount that the User willreceive. Feedback can be provided via the user's computing device.Feedback can also be provided using another device (e.g., on a FirstDevice, on an Alternate Device, etc.).

Users can be paid for receiving targeted advertisements. The amount thatUsers are paid can vary depending on a variety of criteria. For example,payout amount can vary depending on User Profile information (e.g.,demographic information) of one or more Users. Payout amount can beprovided as a range, which can depend on Feedback (e.g., the payoutamount can be more if the User agrees to provide Feedback) or some othertype of indication that the User has received the Content. Or payoutamount can be adjusted based upon a User's integrity rating, measuringthe relationship between the User's stated intended needs and activities(i.e. Assertions), and the User's actual implementation of same inactual practice over time.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of an exemplary method 600 for providing targetedadvertising to a group of Users including a Champion. For example, theexample method 600 can be performed by one or more computing devices(e.g., by the Targeted Content computing system 110 described above inrelation to FIG. 1).

At 610, a plurality of Users is grouped into a shared advertising group.For example, the plurality of Users (e.g., along with their associatedcomputing devices, such as smartphones) can be grouped based on PhysicalProximity, Virtual Proximity, explicit grouping, consuming from a sharedFirst Device at the same location, etc.

At 620, a determination is made that a User has agreed to be a Champion.For example, a User can pre-select a number of Products and/or serviceswith which the User has personal experience and is willing to Champion,which are then saved to a Profile associated with the Champion for uselater. The advertising system can then detect that the Champion isavailable (e.g., is part of the shared advertising group) and ask if theChampion is willing to promote the Product and/or service (e.g., byproviding a payout offer that the Champion will receive).

At 630, one or more targeted advertisements are determined forpresentation (e.g., audio and/or video playback) to the sharedadvertising group. The one or more targeted advertisements aredetermined based, at least in part, on the Champion. For example, anadvertisement for a Product and/or service that is listed in the Profileof the Champion can be selected. The one or more targeted advertisementscan be presented on a First Device (e.g., a television on a home orbusiness setting) and/or on personal Devices (e.g., on displays of thecomputing devices, such as smartphones, of the Users in the sharedadvertising group). The one or more targeted advertisements can be alsodetermined based, at least in part, on Profiles of the Users in theshared advertising group (e.g., selected to maximize payout amount forone or more of the Users, selected based on a minimum payout amountacross all Users of the group, or selected based on other criteria).

At 640, the one or more targeted advertisements are provided forpresentation to the shared advertising group with a correspondingpresentation by the Champion. The targeted advertisements and Championpresentation can be presented on a First Device and/or on personalcomputing Devices (e.g., smartphones). The targeted advertisements andChampion presentation also can be presented on a Device instead ofgeneric advertisements (e.g., in place of generic television commercialsthat are not targeted to the shared advertising group).

Using the platform created by the Arkiïs™ system, a business can createtheir own Targeted Marketing Content for prospective clients and when ina public situation, such as taking the prospective clients out to asports bar, the company's salesperson can sponsor their own advertisingto serve as Targeted Content for delivery to the screens near theirprospective clients to further reinforce the message the salesperson hasgiven them during the day of a sales pitch. In some embodiments, theContent can be personally tailored for the particular clients they areentertaining and refer specifically to them. In further embodiments, thesponsor can get an alert on their phone right before their message isgoing to be sent so they are sure not to miss it. It can also be asimple message, for example, a brief message that states “This quarteris brought to you with premium content and commercial free by Hank!” andshows his profile picture or a quick video blurb instead of anycommercials to allow for extra Premium Content.

The following example usage scenario describes how personally directedpublic advertising may be implemented through the Arkiïs™ system. Georgeand Frank are in Atlanta trying to make a sale of their time trackingsoftware to improve employee productivity. George allocated a budget ofup to $100 to fund inserting their company's ads into the targetedadvertising stream around them while they wine and dine theirprospective clients in the evening. George set it up using his Arkiïs™app so that shared Device ads will only air if both he and Frank aretogether in front of a First Device and so that they will each get anotification on their smartphone 15 seconds before each time their adswill be presented. The first opportunity arises while they are waitingfor a table in the restaurant in its bar area. The television is notvery large and cannot be heard very well in the crowded bar, so thefirst ad only costs them $3. During dinner, there are no televisions,however, in the bathroom, each of the urinals has silent videoadvertising messages. Their company's message is cycled into theselection of messages being displayed on these screens for another $2while they are in the restaurant. After dinner, they take theirprospective clients to their corporate skybox to see the basketballgame. For $40 they buy all the Targeted Marketing Content to cover theentire time they are in their private skybox and may be viewing eitherof the two screens in their room. George configured the targetedadvertisements using his smartphone app so that in each commercialbreak, a sixty second spot for their company is to be shown with therest of the time filled in with behind the scenes Premium Content forthe game. After the game, they go to a pool hall and spend $40 to takeover the two screens in view of the two pool tables they arecongregating around. George has configured the presentation of PremiumContent to align with his clients' interests as delineated in theirclient's Profiles. This is possible because several of the prospectiveclients are Arkiïs™ customers and joined into his SyncGroup early in theevening. Arkiïs™ servers select stand-up comedy and sports commentaryshows as best fitting his client's profiled interests. Each show beginsand ends with a short 15-second message for his company indicating thatthey are sponsoring the selected Premium Content. At the end of theevening, the group splits up into two cars, one driven by Frank and theother by George, to return the clients to their workplace. In the car,the radio plays a selection of tunes streamed from their connectedsmartphones that are commercial free and match the interests of theclients in each respective car for a total charge of another $2. Thetotal cost for advertising during the evening was $87, an Arkiïs™ way tomix business with pleasure.

The Arkiïs™ system facilitates the fortuitous location of brick andmortar stores that have Products of interest to a User. Stores may befortuitously located in the present moment for a User by monitoringtheir location as provided by GPS, Wi-Fi triangulation, mobile celltower proximity, or the like. A User's affirmation of their future plansincluding calendar entries, navigation requests, or explicit Arkiïs™Assertions (e.g. I'm going to drive down to my mom's on next Monday) mayalso be used to facilitate the fortuitous location of brick and mortarstores whose proximity is predicted to occur in the future.Additionally, a prediction of their near future path based upon thevector of their current travel, optionally combined with theirhistorical travel paths, may be used to locate candidate stores whoseproximity is predicted to occur in the future. In some embodiments, aUser may receive a recommendation to travel to a location outside theirnormal typical daily range when the confluence of several buyingopportunities combines to make such a special trip desirable. A User'sProfile may include Assertions of Products they are considering buyingand Arkiïs™ may alert them when they are in the vicinity of a storeoffering a particular Product they are interested in. A User's Profilemay record either an exact Product or a general Product they desire. Anexact Product may be identified by many means including its UPC code,Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) for a particular store, manufacturer anddescription, manufacturer and model, website URL description page, orinternal Arkiïs™ identifier. General Product interest may be identifiedby associated keywords and/or categories of products. Brick and mortarstores may integrate with the Arkiïs™ platform to publish informationfor the Products they have in stock that may include, pricing, locationwithin particular stores, quantity in stock, related Products, orcompeting Products. Store integration with the Arkiïs™ system mayinclude Product keyword and/or category associations for Products theycarry. In some embodiments, brick and mortar store information may beaugmented, extended, corrected, or built from crowdsourcing and/orcomputed from Arkiïs™ member purchase histories.

FIG. 7 illustrates by way of a flow diagram how the examples in theprior two paragraphs may be implemented. As seen in FIG. 7, the Arkiïs™servers (710) receive information from the User Profile database (720)and Goods & Services Provider Profile database (730). The User mobileDevice (740) adds information (745) to the User Profile database (720)including current location information and selected choices (780). TheArkiïs™ servers identify matches for the User (750) based upon in partupon their User Profile database (720) such as their current locationand current time and the Goods & Services Provider Profile database(730) such as store locations, Products, prices, shelf information,services, hours, and interests. For example, the Arkiïs™ servers maysend detailed suggestions (790) including shelf locations within a storeto the User's mobile Device (740) and the User (750) may be alerted andoffered choices (770) to select (780), where selected choices are sentto the User Profile database (720) and accessed by the Arkiïs™ servers(710) to provide further suggestions (790) including an optimal path totraverse to User Mobile Device (740) that then directs (760) the User(750), in the prioritized efficient order as suggested (790) to one ormore particular locations in one or more stores where one or moreselected (780) items of interest may be found.

The guidance may direct the User to the exact location within the storewhere the particular product may be located including directions to thecorrect aisle and shelf. The final guidance may be fine-tuned by aUser's mobile device detecting the RFID tags of the Product. Thisguidance may also apply to shopping lists such as for a grocery storethat are stored in their Profile. In a preferred embodiment, the Arkiïs™system may know what a User wants to buy at the store by the User makingAssertions and by the Arkiïs™ system detecting the frequency at whichvarious Products are purchased and proactively suggesting further itemsto add to such a shopping list. When a product is offered in multipleconfigurations such as size or quantity, the Arkiïs™ system mayrecommend the configuration that is the most cost-efficient after takinginto consideration any shelf life limitations of the Product and therate at which the User typically consumes the Product. Such computationsmay satisfy a confidence factor from a User's Profile such that theprobability of the optimum size determination being correct exceeds theconfidence level. For example, a 90% confidence level would mean thatfor the recommended purchase size, 90% of the time, that purchase sizewill be the least expensive choice in the long run after futurepredictions on pricing and consumption rates become actual.

The Arkiïs™ system may direct the User through the store using atraveling salesman problem (TSP) solution/heuristic from computationalcomplexity theory to provide a short path or the shortest path to getall the items they need/desire in a store. More generally, the travelingpurchaser problem may be applied to select the least expensive method toprocure all items on a shopping list from a plurality of possible storeswhere costs may include travel expenses and time. The purchase price ofthe traveling purchaser problem may be replaced by a formula for anadjusted purchase price that accounts for the value a User places ontheir travel time and/or the actual travel costs in addition to theactual purchase price, further the adjusted price may be computed toaccount for an assigned value that reflects the perceived/judged costsof negative externalities. For example, a User may place a high value onthe environment and thus may ascribe a monetary cost to the carbonfootprint of competing Products and also upon the footprint to travel tothe Product's location to acquire it. Such assignment of monetary costin a formula may be facilitated by a Certifier (see Section 11—ProvidingFeedback on Content, Goods, and Services) the User trusts such as an NGOproviding an assessment of, for example, the carbon footprint of aProduct. Alternatively, a User may provide their own formula forcomputing an adjusted price that includes as input the various metricsof Independent Reviewer Certification for Products in the Arkiïs™system. Such formulas may weight the various factors that are inputsdifferently according to their relative assessed importance. Suchformulas may require as input information from a User's Profile,information from an Independent Reviewer Certification, and/orinformation about a Product, merchant, or store. Such computations aretoo complex and time consuming for one or more humans to carry out, evenmore so considering their need to be computed nearly instantly to haveany real value to the User, and thus require the automation of one ormore computational devices, which when using this method enables eachindividual User to more effectively compare competing Products alongdimensions of interest to themselves than a simple comparison of justprice and/or features of a Product or service. Such non-conventionalcomputations are far from routine activities and not previously known inthe full form explained herein.

The Arkiïs™ system may communicate with a store's smart shelftechnologies whereby a shelf or product packaging may include computerdevices and the ability to display information or provide auditoryprompts or other sensory output (e.g. emit a scent or vibrate). Oneexample is the addition of LED indicators along a shelf to attractattention or indicate a customized and or time limited level ofdiscount, or highlight Product features of interest to you, like non-GMOingredients. Another example is a reusable packaging enclosure thatlights up to bring attention to it. These features may be activatedthrough the use of Near Field Communication (NFC), Wi-Fi, or GPS, forexample.

In some embodiments, free samples might be dispersed conditionally basedupon Profiles that are good candidates for a Product. For example, avending machine may only supply free samples to identified selectedshoppers whose Profiles in general or whose ratings within theirProfiles satisfy Marketer requirements. Selected Users' smartphones,detecting proximity to such vending machines, may offer Users theProducts and allow Users to accept or reject the one or more offers. Ifaccepted, their smartphones may communicate with the vending machinedispenser to cause the matching accepted Products to be dispensed.Communication may be by sending Infrared (IR) codes, Near FieldCommunication (NFC), displaying a QR code that is read by the vendingmachine, submitting a response back to Arkiïs™ cloud servers for networkdissemination back to the vending machine, etc. Alternatively, a humanworker may dispense freshly created samples when either alerted to do soby a mobile device that may present a photo of the recipient, light upgreen when a matching User's smartphone is waved, or when a designatedrecipient produces a distinctly recognizable supplied photo on theirsmartphone.

The store's shelves may communicate with the Arkiïs™ system tocoordinate with Users such that the shelves respond to Users as theytraverse the store and help them locate Products of interest to themsuch as those being on their shopping list. For example, individuallyaddressable LEDs may line store shelves where such LEDs are activated bythe Arkiïs™ system when a User is nearby a Product for which they aresearching/interested in order to draw attention to its exact location.The lights may be turned on and off in patterns to create the appearanceof a focal point for the Product's exact location. For example, turningon the whole Product's shelf's lights to direct attention to the correctshelf, following by turning them off from the left and right sides ofthe shelf in succession until the position directly under the Product isreached simultaneously from both the left and right sides can easilydirect a User's attention to the exact Product location by the animatingeffect of the lights being individually controlled.

The map of a store's inventory may be provided directly by a store or itmay be grown organically/crowdsourced by Arkiïs™ Users contributing theinformation incrementally as they find and buy Products at a store.Users may grow the database of items, prices, configurations, and theirlocations within a store by scanning the UPC of items (or otheridentifying features such as QR code) as they place them in their basketand thus providing the location of the item within the store andoptionally its price. The Users that benefit from the foregoing databeing collected may compensate the Users within the Arkiïs™ system thatprovide the data. The Users that provide the data may also have theirintegrity rating in a given area improved. Users may be presented withthe last known price of an item and offered the ability to correct it ifthe price has changed. The average location of all Users scanning anitem, possibly after screening out the outliers, may be combined to givea good fine-tuned approximation of an item's location in a store. IfUsers start reporting a completely new location, the item must have beenmoved to a new location in the store or is now available in more thanone location in a store. The history of an item's location as providedby all the contributing Users might weight recent logging of itslocation more heavily when directing a User to its location in a store.Users may also log the absence of a Product at its predicted location tofurther refine the database information and accuracy. Users may alsocontribute pricing information to the system and help other Users decidewhere to buy an item if they are going to visit several stores.

The following example usage scenario shows how the shopping assistantfeature may be implemented. Elena recently discovered she is glutenintolerant and puts this information on her Arkiïs™ Profile so that shewill be targeted with advertisements of gluten-free Products. She drivesto her local supermarket to buy groceries for the week every Tuesday at6 PM. On this specific Tuesday, her smartphone's GPS confirms that sheis heading towards the supermarket at 5:50 PM, so Arkiïs™ offers her anaudio advertisement for a new brand of gluten-free bagels available atthe supermarket, which will pay for the cost of her commercial-freesatellite radio station. Elena agrees, and is impressed by the selectionof flavors available. Her audible “Wow!” is picked up by hersmartphone's microphone and informs the Arkiïs™ system that she had apositive reaction to the advertisement. After listening to theadvertisement, Elena receives a coupon on her smartphone, containing aQR code that can be scanned to receive $2 off of a dozen bagels. Sinceshe seemed to react positively to the gluten-free bagels advertisement,the Product is automatically added to the shopping list Arkiïs™ hascurated for her, which is based on her prior purchase patterns. WhenElena enters the store, she checks Arkiïs™ for her optimized shoppingroute and is initially directed towards the gluten-free baked goodssection of the supermarket. As Elena approaches the gluten-free bakedgoods section of the store, the shelves around the advertised bagelsflash violet and aqua, which are her favorite colors listed on herArkiïs™ Profile. A bakery employee is alerted by the Arkiïs™ system tooffer Elena samples of the bagel flavors so that she can choose herfavorites. Deciding on jalapeño cheddar and cinnamon walnut, she grabshalf a dozen of each, and then uses her smartphone to find the nextclosest item's location within the store using Arkiïs™.

The Arkiïs™ system may allow a User to specify a set of stores they aregoing to shop at in a day and Arkiïs™ may direct the User to optimizetheir purchases by directing them to only those items that are leastexpensive at a given store and deferring the other items to a laterstore where they cost less. In some embodiments, the Arkiïs™ system mayalso suggest new stores to consider adding or replacing to a User'scurrent shopping stores based upon pricing information being betteroptimized with the new suggested store. Suggested stores may be based inpart upon the route a User is planning to take or the route that Arkiïs™may recommend to minimize distance, travel time, parking costs, walkingdistances, and or other expense during the day as they shop at multiplestores so as to minimize the time and expense required for the suggestedadded stop. The User's Profile may include a numeric dollar attributionat which they value their time (e.g. $20 per hour) and such anattribution may be incorporated into their suggested shopping plan suchthat any time saved or extra time required at that rate would have to beoffset by an even greater cost savings in the Products they buy toproduce a shopping plan that looks at the big picture of savings vs.time.

Arkiïs™ may allow for targeted product placement within Premium Content.For example, at present during baseball games, there is already agreen-screen billboard being used behind the batter. During livebroadcast, the Content Provider digitally overlays Content on thebillboard, typically changing the message each half-inning. However,with Arkiïs™, this content may now be targeted specifically to theviewer. This may be done by the broadcaster providing the Arkiïs™servers a feed where the green-screen has not been substituted andArkiïs™ may arrange, internally or through a third party depending onthe embodiment, for Targeted Content to replace the green-screen beforedelivering to the end viewer.

In a preferred embodiment, the static live action product placement oftoday can also be supplanted dynamically with targeted productplacement. Today, Premium Content sells static product placement inmovies and television shows. For example, Florida's Natural® may placetheir carton of orange juice in a show where, during a scene, acharacter takes the carton out of the refrigerator and pours a glass.With the functionality made possible by Arkiïs™, this substitution canbe deferred and dynamic. Rather than using an actual fixed productplacement, the actor uses a green-screen version in the shape of theProduct to be substituted. For example, an unlabeled carton of juice, acan of soda, or a tube of toothpaste may be used. The green-screenversion of the Product contains keying locations to help the computerrecognize the 3-dimensional orientation of the Product. The productorientation is then computed during production and editing and the videofeed encodes sufficient information for a dynamic product placementduring final playback. The audio portion can even likewise besynchronized to provide an audio component of the product placement byhaving the actors record the words for the various placement choicesdesired or by having a computer construct the alternate words based uponsamples of the actor's voice.

An embodiment of Arkiïs™ implementing dynamic product placement isdescribed: Heather is watching The Newsroom on HBO as streamed to her bythe Arkiïs™ cloud servers and in one scene, Jeff Daniels takes a cartonof juice out of the refrigerator and pours himself a glass and leavesthe carton on the counter. Because Heather's Profile shows that sheprefers grapefruit juice over orange juice, the Arkiïs™ cloud serversprovide a feed in which her targeted product placement choosesgrapefruit juice over orange, further, based upon her Profile,Tropicana® is chosen over Florida's Natural®. In the dialog, JeffDaniels offers his friend a glass of grapefruit juice instead ofoffering orange juice as it was originally recorded by the cloud serversoftware splicing in the alternate dialog in Heather's streaming feed.Further, the green-screen colored carton he holds during filming issubstituted with the Tropicana® version of grapefruit juice in Heather'sfeed. To Heather, it appears that the original scene was filmedspecifically for her targeted product placement selection.

Alternate Content is also available by way of product placement in videoand/or audio only games. Alternate Content may be inserted into,depending on the embodiment: computer games, mobile (smartphone, tablet)games, console-accessed video games, etc. During gameplay, a User mayoptionally consume a Targeted Marketing Content commercial to buy anin-game advantage. In some embodiments, based on your Profile, there canbe targeted product placement in the game. For example, an in-gamepotion can be branded with Coca-Cola® and the potion appears as aCoca-Cola® bottle and color in the game and offers an extra in-gamebonus compared to the non-productized default version of the potion. Inan alternate embodiment, a video game can be optimized based upon thenutritional density of in-game food based upon its real world value. Inthis way, nutritious branded foods can be placed in the game and havein-game value proportional to their real world nutritional value. Thetargeted product placement in the game is based upon the User's Arkiïs™Profile characteristics. By linking a User's Arkiïs™ Profile with theironline gaming accounts (e.g. Xbox Live®, PlayStation® Network Account,Club Nintendo® Account, etc.) targeted advertisements and productplacement in games may closely reflect a User's gaming persona.

The following is an example usage scenario of the Arkiïs™ systemimplementing video game product placement. Tom is playing Diablo III®and has linked his character in the game to his real-life Arkiïs™Profile. Tom prefers Pepsi®, as it is his favorite kind of soda. He hasagreed in the game to Pepsi's° product placement. His rejuvenationpotions are rendered in the game to appear as Pepsi® cans and bottles,and in return for the product placement, his rejuvenation potions offera 20% extra effect each time they are imbibed.

An example usage scenario describing product placement in a video gameis as follows: Joey is nine years old and has recently become interestedin skateboarding. His parents have configured Joey's Arkiïs™ Profile torequire in varying degrees that all Content include things thatencourage him to think and act in ways that enhances his moral,physical, and mental abilities. So his parents have configured hisProfile online to require that all advertising include an educationalcomponent that is approved by one of the third party non-governmentalorganizations they designate. JumpSport® has recently come out with asafer skateboard design for children and has an approved educationaladvertisement to target Joey's professed interest in buying his firstskateboard. JumpSport's® targeted ad wins placement by satisfying hisProfile requirements and bidding highest and pays Joey $0.25 to play andcomplete it. The advertisement is an interactive video game thatrequires Joey to complete a series of multiplication problems that aretailored to his individual educational needs as determined by his linkedstandardized test results or certain approved online math educationalprograms that are linked to his Arkiïs™ Profile. Completed problemsallow Joey to virtually build and configure his proposed new skateboardto gather the parts and then assemble them followed by his selecting andvirtually donning his safety gear. Only once his skateboard is fullyassembled and he is wearing all the safety gear is he able to ride thevirtual skateboard and unlock a video tutorial that teaches him hisfirst skateboarding trick. Because Joey completes the multiplicationproblems quickly and correctly, he is also awarded with a coupon forfree shipping on a new JumpSport® skateboard. Additionally, Joey'sparents have sweetened the deal by agreeing to contribute their ownArkiïs™ credits to increase Joey's advertising credit by $5 for eacheducation advertisement Joey completes that demonstrates hisimprovement. Joey's performance on the JumpSport® advertisementdemonstrated improvement in his multiplication skills and thus earnedhim the $5 bonus supplied by his parents through the Arkiïs™ system,sufficiently raising his Arkiïs™ User Profile balance so that he can nowafford the skateboard with his own money. Joey places the order onlineusing JumpSport's® Arkiïs™ enabled website. The website notifies theArkiïs™ servers of the order and awaits final authorization for thepayment. The Arkiïs™ servers route the order to Joey's parents for finalapproval along with a targeted advertisement that explains the safetyadvantages of their Product to his parents. Once his parents approve theorder, JumpSport® is notified that the funds are now available.JumpSport® ships the skateboard and requests disbursement from theArkiïs™ servers.

It can be appreciated that Joey's parents may also have Content pushedto their son that reflects their ethics, beliefs and/or values. Forexample, positive phrases that reflect their values or beliefs may beembedded in or adjacent to the advertisements that Joey sees related tohis interest area. Thus, Joey may also see a positive statement beforeor after the advertisement that displays a value the parent wants Joeyto reflect upon or see. For example, a statement saying, “Courage is notthe absence of fear, but doing your best in spite of your fear.” Othervalue statements, biblical quotes, or the like can be included in thematerial consumed by their children, so that parents can transmit theirvalues to their children even when they are not present with them.

In a preferred embodiment, Users may add a plug-in to their browser thatautomatically replaces Internet ads with more highly targeted Arkiïs™ads. This may be done similarly to how the Adblock Plus or AdBlockplug-ins block advertising on web pages displayed in a browser—forexample, by intercepting requests from the browser to particulardomains, hiding advertisements based on CSS formatting, hiding pageelements which fit the dimensions of standard web advertisements, orhiding page elements whose source domain is recognized to be foradvertising (e.g. doubleclick.net). However, instead of blocking, theads are substituted with Arkiïs™ ads based upon the User's Profile andthe layout position and dimensions of each ad being replaced. In analternate embodiment, instead of substituting existing ads withlike-sized ads, the page layout may be dynamically reconfigured to allowArkiïs™ to substitute more highly targeted ads. This may be accomplishedby marking areas of a page (e.g. page position of top left/bottom rightcorner, width and height of area) where advertisements may be displayed,and overlaying ads within these areas that may not be the same size asthe originally displayed advertisement(s). The User may be paid fordisplay of ads and/or for clicking on ads. Additionally, a portion ofthe ad revenue may be shared with the website whose ads are beingreplaced. One possible method of revenue sharing is by having theArkiïs™ plug-in detect websites that are Arkiïs™-enabled (e.g. throughmatching the URL with URLs within an Arkiïs™-enabled site's database)and supplying an Arkiïs™ anonymous ID to uniquely identify the User thatis browsing and having the website serve up its own Arkiïs™ ads that aretargeted by Arkiïs™ for that User. Such anonymous identifiers or tokensmay be uniquely supplied to participating websites with each new websitebeing visited receiving a new unique identifier. In another embodiment,an identifier or token may be reused across multiple websites orsessions for a set time period such as ten minutes and upon expiration anew identifier supplied for subsequent sites being visited or evenwithin an active session at a site that spans the expiration, areplacement identifier or token may be supplied in the middle of aUser's visit to a web site. In yet another embodiment, Users sharing adisplay and browsing together may form a SyncGroup and receive ads forthe group and may have a shared identifier or token that represents thegroup's identity. Additionally, Users may combine into a SyncGroup sothat even when they are independently browsing, they may receive adstargeted to their SyncGroup and may have the same or differentidentifiers but which are all associated by Arkiïs™ with the identity oftheir SyncGroup.

Content Producers may not initially choose to cooperate with Arkiïs™,but advertisements can be served in a separate window while stillsharing a portion of revenues with them. Such ads can be selected whilestill knowing the content of the page being viewed so that such historyis taken into the User's Profile and ads are more contextually based.

The following example usage scenario describes an embodiment of thesystem utilizing online advertising. Doug installs the Arkiïs™ plug-ininto his Chrome® browser and, using the plug-in, logs into the Arkiïs™servers and receives a set of 256 bit identifiers (or any other sizeappropriate for hashing security) that each uniquely and or anonymouslyidentify himself as a particular Arkiïs™ member or classification/typeof member to participating websites. He goes to Amazon®, an Arkiïs™participant, and the plug-in provides one of these identifiers. Theidentifier may be supplied by adding it to the URL his browser navigatesto at Amazon®. (Periodically, when his set of identifiers runs low orwill expire soon, his plug-in may request additional identifiers fromthe Arkiïs™ servers.) On Amazon®, all sponsored links are selected bythe Amazon® web servers by utilizing Doug's supplied identifier andsubmitting it to Arkiïs™, along with the current Amazon® page he isabout to view, in order for Amazon® to receive targeted sponsored linksfrom Arkiïs™. Alternatively, Amazon® may query Arkiïs™ for areas ofinterest for the given Profile with respect to Products for sale onAmazon® and or advertisements being used on Amazon's® site. This mayinclude Amazon® supplying a database or directory of Products andadvertisements and the corresponding desired target demographics of thecustomers they are trying to attract for each of those Products andadvertisements that may be matched and selected by Arkiïs™ for Amazon®for the User. This allows Amazon® to customize the web pages includingany suggestions they wish to make to the Arkiïs™ User. Amazon® serversbuild their web page for Doug utilizing the information supplied and orfacilitated by Arkiïs™ and serve up their page, customized for Doug, butwithout Amazon® learning of Doug's actual identity or his demographicinformation. If Doug clicks on any of the sponsored links, the Arkiïs™servers will automatically credit Doug and Amazon® a portion of theproceeds. After finding a Product he is interested in on Amazon®, Dougdecides to check eBay®, in a new tab, to see if one is available used.Because eBay® is not yet an Arkiïs™ integrated site, his plug-in doesnot supply one of his identifiers in the eBay® URL and instead may usead blocking technology to detect the advertisements that are included inthe eBay® pages and either block them, or if eBay® has agreed to acceptArkiïs™ payments, then the ads which are blocked can be substituted withArkiïs™ ads. Substitution works by determining the window location andsize of each ad to be blocked and individually querying the Arkiïs™servers for Doug's targeted ads that may adhere and fit in the availablereal estate, creating an overlaid web page that contains the coreContent from eBay® but with all ads being replaced by Doug's targetedadvertising from Arkiïs™. Arkiïs™ automatically shares a portion of thead revenues with both Doug and eBay®. (Sites may fall along a spectrumof varying levels integration, beginning with the most basic level ofjust accepting payments from Arkiïs™, continuing onto accepting adsubstitution, and finally offering complete seamless site integration.Sites may be rewarded with higher revenue shares as they proceed alongthis Content Spectrum.) When Doug completes his Amazon® session or exitshis browsing session, any cookies related to his unique Arkiïs™identifiers may be automatically purged and deleted from his computer bythe Arkiïs™ browser plug-in.

Through the functionality granted by the Arkiïs™ system, Users maycontrol the direct mail advertising they receive from participatingMarketers who may use detailed criteria to precisely select recipientswho are receptive to their messages. Such mail may contain custom QRcodes that recipients may scan with their phone to get paid forreviewing the mail piece and possibly lead to follow up ads on theirsmartphone. Alternatively, the mail may contain a unique piece numberand Arkiïs™ telephone number the recipient may call and enter theirpiece's number to get paid for reviewing the mail and possibly lead tofollow up audio ads over their phone. When calling in to confirmreceipt, a User's caller id and voiceprint may be used to authenticateand confirm their identity in a preferred embodiment. Users may avoidreceiving duplicate copies of direct mail that is addressed to differentpeople at the same address by requesting such in their Profiles toreceive shared mail that may contain individual QR codes or unique piecenumbers for each intended recipient in a household. In a preferredembodiment, recipients may send Feedback on received mail through theirArkiïs™ Profile via a Device for additional payouts including Feedbackthat the advertisement was poorly targeted and not of interest to them.Arkiïs™ may partner with delivery services to allow advertisers tosupply unaddressed bulk mailings to a shipper who addresses each mailingas selected out of the Arkiïs™ databases, thus insulating recipientsfrom divulging their identity to advertisers.

Users may control the newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals theyreceive from participating publishers. Control may include advertisingContent (or lack thereof) and Premium Content to customize a periodicalto better match the specific interests of a reader. Users can paypublishers for Content directly or share revenues they receive fromtargeted advertising in the periodicals. Advertisers may be aware of thecontextual Content within which they would be placed in selecting theirtarget audience. By linking their wearable computing devices with theirArkiïs™ Profile, Users may use wearable computing devices such asGoogle® Glasses to track consumption of Content and only pay for whatthey actually read. Alternatively, representative samples from thepopulation may be used (representatives may be compensated to facilitatesampling) to track typical consumption patterns and apply them as normsfor matching groups from the general population. Users may choose tocompose their own custom periodicals and associated targeted advertisingthat pull Content from multiple sources into a single customized printedor electronic periodical that they control through their Arkiïs™Profile. In a preferred embodiment, Users may request Content selectionbe prioritized by Content highly rated by other Users with similarArkiïs™ Profiles in the Content's interest area. Companies like The WallStreet Journal may wish to encourage potential readers to subscribethrough Arkiïs™ because more highly targeted advertisements and Contentgenerate higher revenues and thus they may, for example, offer potentialsubscribers three months of free access in return for receiving theirsubscription integrated with Arkiïs™.

Users may pay for and select Content based upon its value to them andthey may be asked to rate or grade the Content on a sliding scale alongmetrics such as quality of writing, value, and interestingness. Beforereading an article, the User may be presented (via a Device) with asliding cost the article may cost along with a predicted likely costbased upon their predicted rating. The article cost can then befinalized based upon how much of the article the User consumed togetherwith how highly the User rated the article and optionally together withthe ratings of everyone else or only like-minded others as determined bytheir Profiles.

Placard advertisements in public places such as billboards, publictransportation advertising, etc., may contain generic QR codes that aUser may scan with their location-aware, Arkiïs™ enabled smartphone toconfirm receipt, get paid, and possibly receive follow up advertisingwith additional payouts. In some preferred embodiments, Users may take apicture of the entire advertisement and submit the picture for patternrecognition and identification to confirm receipt together withsmartphone location information. In other preferred embodiments, theseadvertisements may contain a unique advertisement number and telephonenumber that they may call and enter the advertisement's number to getpaid for reviewing it and possibly lead to follow up paid audioadvertisements over their phone. When a User calls the number, theirphone's caller ID number may be used to identify them, or alternatively,they may enter their unique User ID. A User's voiceprint may be used tofurther confirm their identity. These public advertisements may indicatea minimum payout recipients will receive for confirming viewing.

While traveling, a User may automatically be credited for billboardsthey pass by their location-aware smartphone in return for allowingArkiïs™ to provide the advertiser some of their demographic information,possibly anonymously. This information may also include a timestamp ofwhen the advertisement was passed. The User may be credited by matchingtheir location found though GPS, Wi-Fi triangulation, mobile cell towerproximity, or other means to a billboard location database, afterconfirming the direction a User is facing on the road. In an alternateembodiment, a User's direction may be inferred (and possibly stillconfirmed) by analyzing the direction of the vector of their travel withthe presumption that they are facing forward in their vehicle unlessotherwise specified in the User's Profile. In another embodiment, Usersmay automatically be queried as to whether they wish to provide Feedbackon the billboard at the time of passing or at a later time if they are adriver. For dynamic electronic billboards, the billboard may adapt tothe automatic SyncGroup of Users currently in range to view thebillboard to optimize for the current group of potential viewers. Thisoptimization may, in some embodiments, partition a billboard screen upinto multiple advertisements that divide up the screen to allowindividual optimization for different subsets of the passing populationand may entail independent switching of advertisements for differentsubsets at different times. Subsets may even target down to theindividual and offer Champion messages featuring their friends. Arkiïs™may direct Users, such as through their smartphone, to the displayregion corresponding to the advertisement that most closely targetstheir interest. In some embodiments, the advertisements may becolor-coded, such as with a colored outline that your smartphone directsyou to locate. When an advertisement is particularly interesting orappropriate, your smartphone may alert you to pay attention, such as byemitting an audible alarm. This direction may indicate contextual cuessuch as look for red, look for the puppy, or look for their friend (aChampion) to direct the User to the appropriate advertisement.Additionally, after seeing a billboard and still traveling, a User maybe offered targeted advertisements on their Arkiïs™ radio feed forfollow up audio messages to reinforce the billboard or at a later timethey may get a reinforcing television, Internet advertisement, orsubsequent dynamic billboard advertisement.

In a preferred embodiment, Badges (either physical, digital/electronic,or both) can be awarded (as an added entry/record as part of a User'sProfile) for accomplishments: for example, an “iBadge” that is earnedupon buying an iPhone®, iPad®, and MacBook Air®. Users may configure intheir Profile the visibility of their digital Badges, causing some to beinvisible to others or only visible to a select set of friends. In someembodiments, Badges can be earned based upon Content consumed, such as aGame of Thrones Badge for watching every episode of season 1. Badges maybe awarded along competitive metrics such as the amount of advertising aUser has consumed, amount of Feedback provided to advertisers, or amountof Feedback provided on items purchased. There may be a scoring systemmanaged by the Arkiïs™ cloud servers based upon accomplishments recordedin User Profiles such as purchases made and a leaderboard view into theArkiïs™ databases may show which Users are doing the best within a groupof Users or globally. Badges may include the date they were earned aspart of a database entry. Other Badges can reflect values and socialresponsibility, such as Arkiïs™ tracking your carbon footprint basedupon your activities and awarding Badges for improvement or being belowa level. In some embodiments, Users may compete with their friends toget a green score, for example to have the lowest carbon footprint forthe month. Other values can also be tracked and Badges awarded such as,for example, a Badge or competition for eating well or buying goods thatare socially responsible in their manufacture. Another Badge area can befor Arkiïs™ participation such as a Badge for providing Feedback on somenumber of commercials, reaching a certain trust level, maintaining anactive Profile for a certain number of years, or providing some numberof reviews. Earned Badges may include payout bonuses that may be agreedupon by advertisers and included in their payout formulas, for example,a User that uses a complete suite of Products within a month may earn a5% bonus payout on all advertisements related to that suite of Products.Or, alternatively, one Badge may possess multiple rankings as tobehavior, integrity (honesty as to stated intent, Assertions, and actualbehavior), as well as other valuations. Such a single emblem can be awheel with various quadrants showing standing in multiple areas of Userbehavior and values. Or the quadrants of the wheel can show the top tenor twenty areas of User activity or importance in a pie chart based onother criteria or values. Other polygonal and/or color-coded visuals maybe created to reflect User information and/or standing. If a person iscolorblind, emblems or Badges can be modified to depict Badge rankingsby other means that allow for differentiation by the colorblind person.

Another kind of Badge is the right to have distinctive notificationswhich, depending on the embodiment, may be one or more of: auditory,visual, and or tactile (e.g. vibration) on your computing devices thatare only available to Users currently satisfying the Badge's criteria.This can be done to enable Users with physical and/or mentaldisabilities to receive information as well as a non-disabled User. Insome embodiments, other Users near Users having earned such Badges orvirtually interacting with such Users, may receive Arkiïs™ notificationson their computing devices certifying such Badges and notifying themwith audio, visual, or vibration alerts. For example, you may earn a lowcarbon footprint for the month and thus be allowed to use a distinctiveringtone that others may recognize as meaning you have earned this Badgeand which goes away in subsequent months if you do not maintain theBadge's criteria. Such audio alerts may be combined with smartphonescreen alerts that identify the Badge associated with the audio alertand teach others its meaning. When authorized by a User in theirProfile, other Users may hear a distinctive ringtone when you call theirphone or get a vibration alert on their smartwatch when you are nearthem if they have configured their Profiles to allow their Devices toreceive such information. Also, in certain embodiments, a User mayauthorize the sharing of aspects of their Profile so that other Usersmay receive this data on their digital devices (e.g. Google® Glasseswhen looking at them or a representation of them such as their printedname or photograph.)

Users may be awarded Profile Badges or emblems, coupons, or bonuspayouts for being confirmed to have received every one in a series ofrelated ads. An advertiser can have an ad campaign that consists of tendifferent ads placed throughout a subway system and when a User isconfirmed to have viewed all ten ads, they receive one of these bonusawards. For example, after viewing all five ads for five new summerStarbucks iced coffee flavors, a User may receive a coupon for one freecup of iced coffee as well as a Badge depicting a golden cup of coffeefor possible display on their public User Profile as viewed by others.Depending on the embodiment, the viewing of public placardadvertisements to receive Profile Badges, coupons, and/or bonuses may beverified by one or more of the following: scanning a QR code located onthe public placard via the User's smartphone, comparing a user-submittedpicture of the public placard to the known image on the public placard,verifying the User's location through GPS or other location determiningdata and prompting the User to answer a question related to the publicplacard, image verification or QR code scanning through wearabletechnology such as Google® Glass, and the like.

Artists may perform in public (e.g. street performers) and receivepayment through the Arkiïs™ system by posting a QR code which passersbymay scan, allowing Users to check in using GPS data, or the like andchoose a contribution they wish to make to support the performances.Users may rate the performances and help like-minded Users to locatepublic performances that may be of interest to them. Performers may beChampions and may offer free samples. To facilitate the tracking of freesamples, the Champion may receive an audible alert each time their QRcode or the sample QR code is scanned or a User confirms receipt ontheir smartphone depending on the embodiment. The QR code may requirethe User's scanning smartphone is location-aware and in the vicinity ofthe Champion. Alternatively, Arkiïs™ may know the location of theperformer due to the performer being a User who has registered as aperformer with Arkiïs™ and submitted their location to the Arkiïs™servers or enabled location tracking on their phone for the duration ofthe performance. In some embodiments, Users may get alerts because theirsmartphones are location-aware and in the performer's vicinity. Thesealerts may allow the User to acknowledge they are watching theperformance and to easily make a contribution if they desire. Suchalerts may also indicate when the performer is a Champion and/or whenthey are providing free samples. Alerts may also include a schedule ofperformance information.

Another kind of advertising possible through the Arkiïs™ system is alive pitch delivered one-on-one to a User over a telephone, videophone,Internet chat, text messages, in person, etc. Such advertising may becoordinated by the Arkiïs™ system to match up the live Content withUsers selected by Arkiïs™ for targeting. In these pitches, a person (orcomputer simulation of a person, in some embodiments) contacts the Userdirectly using audio and/or video or by physically meeting up with theUser to provide direct Content. Such contact is coordinated by theArkiïs™ system, including its being offered to a User and whether theyaccept such contact. Content may be Marketing Content or Premium Contentor a combination such as an advertisement that leads into PremiumContent if the person accepts the offer being sold as the PremiumContent. The User's Profile may contain requirements to control thecontact and Content, such as an outline or flow chart of how theinteraction shall transpire. If the live Content violates a User'srequirements the Provider may be required to compensate the User as apenalty for violating the requirements agreed to before contact wasinitiated. In embodiments where contact is by electronic means (i.e. notin person) Arkiïs™ may serve as broker to connect the two parties inorder that their identities may be kept anonymous, undesired follow upcontact outside the Arkiïs™ system is inhibited, and/or Arkiïs™ systemsmay maintain accounting of the transaction. Such brokering may take theform of Arkiïs™ interposing itself between the parties where each partyindividually connects with the Arkiïs™ system and Arkiïs™ connects theparties together within the Arkiïs™ system. For example, each partydials a telephone number for Arkiïs™ and upon each party properlyidentifying themselves to Arkiïs™ their telephone calls are bridged orconferenced together.

Some Users may watch pirated Content and advertisers may be motivated toprovide targeted advertising in and around such Content and to targetUsers that enjoy particular titles regardless of how the User comes toconsume the Content. However, the consumption of pirated materials mayaffect a User's integrity rating and the like at the exact same timetargeted advertising is being successfully provided to that same User.The Arkiïs™ identification of Content such as by matching audiosignatures applies equally well to pirated Content and thus allowsArkiïs™ to detect when Content is being consumed, regardless of how itwas acquired by the User. As such, targeted advertising revenue may beshared with Content Producers even in the case that their Content hasbeen pirated. Content Providers may wish to target those pirating theirContent with offers to sell paraphernalia related to the Content.

5. Operational Overview

The following description is directed to computerized techniques andsolutions for more effectively providing targeted advertising (e.g., byproviding Targeted Marketing Content and/or other types of Content inassociation with targeted advertising). For example, targetedadvertising can be provided in a combined system comprising one or moreFirst Devices (e.g., one or more televisions being viewed by one or morepeople) and one or more personal computing devices (e.g., one or moreindividual smartphones or tablet devices). Targeted advertising can beprovided in an individual or in a group environment. For example,advertisements can be targeted to a group of Users (e.g., based onProfile information of one or more members of the group). Targetedadvertising can also be provided in a system with just one or more FirstDevices, or with just one or more personal computing devices.

Content is to be interpreted as experiential information delivered to aUser and may include interactions and/or artistic expression such asvideo, audio, still photos, words, comic strips, and live performances.As shown in FIG. 8, Content varies across a Content Spectrum that mayrange from high-value/Premium Content to low or negative valueContent—like advertising that pays Consumers (i.e. a User or a SyncGroupof Users). Content may be Targeted by selecting it based upon aConsumer's Profile information (e.g. an advertiser's search criteriamatches information in a Consumer's Profile such as their demographics,stated interests, buying history, future intentions, etc.). The Arkiïs™system provides mechanisms to overlay Targeted Content on top ofminimally Targeted Content (i.e., Generic Content). As shown in FIG. 9,Digital Content (900) is Content that may be stored by digital means forsubsequent reproduction on a Device (910) (e.g. a radio, television, orsmartphone) on behalf of a Consumer (920).

An advertising overlay using a First Device—such as a television, radio,and/or other Alternative Devices—such as a smartphone or wearabledevice, which provide targeted advertisements that may be received inplace of general (non-targeted) advertisements by a Consumer. A customset-top box (e.g. DVR) or a streaming media service (e.g. on-demandtelevision) may deliver the overlay. Advertisements may involveconsumption of other sensory input (i.e., viewing, listening, feeling,tasting, and smelling).

In some embodiments, advertisements are overlaid on a television. Forexample, using both an Alternate Device (e.g., smartphone) and a FirstDevice (e.g., television), targeted advertisements can be provided thatare presented in place of general (non-targeted) advertisements.Overlaying can be performed, for example, via a custom set-top box(e.g., DVR), a cloud-based DVR, or a streaming media service (e.g.,on-demand television). Targeted advertisements can be presented on theFirst Device and/or on the mobile device (e.g., the mobile device can becalled the Alternate Device). There are embodiments for a Consumer (aUser or a SyncGroup of Users). There are also embodiments without anAlternate Device (e.g., where only the mobile device(s) are utilized).

In some implementations, Users are grouped into a shared advertisinggroup and can be grouped on the basis of contextual or User suppliedinformation, rather than mined data. For example, a number of Usersconsuming the same Content can be grouped together (e.g., a number ofUsers viewing a football game on one or more televisions in a sportsbar). Users can be grouped into a shared advertising group based, atleast in part, on whether the Users participate in the same targetedadvertising system and/or based on other criteria (e.g., PhysicalProximity, Virtual Proximity, explicit grouping by the Users, etc.).Users can join or leave a shared advertising group (e.g., when a newUser enters a location with an existing shared advertising group or whenan existing User leaves the location). Two or more shared advertisinggroups can merge, and a shared advertising group can split into multiplegroups. Independent groups can also be created at the same location(e.g., for a sports bar with multiple televisions, those Users of thesports bar watching a particular television can be grouped together).

In preferred implementations, Users are paid for receiving targetedadvertising. For example, Users can be paid an amount based on variouscriteria, such as User Profile information (e.g., demographicinformation, purchase history, and/or other Profile information),Feedback (e.g., whether the User confirms that the advertisement wasconsumed, answers to specific questions, and/or other types ofFeedback), etc. Feedback can also be used in determining future targetedadvertisements to be presented to a User (e.g., to present a follow-uptargeted advertisement to a User that expressed an interest in aparticular Product or service during prior Feedback).

The following is an example usage scenario that illustrates one way inwhich the technology described herein can be embodied.

Ted and Mary have decided to buy a custom-made armoire from a localartisan to celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary. On Sundayafternoon, Ted logs into his Arkiïs™ Profile in the cloud and adds, tohis shared marriage SyncGroup Profile, a listing indicating theirintention to buy such an armoire on one of the next two weekends with abudget not to exceed $5,000. Based upon their individual Profilepreferences, Ted receives an email and Mary receives a text messageconfirming the addition to their shared SyncGroup Profile. Mary reviewsthe text message and notices that Ted's listing in their sharedSyncGroup Profile failed to include the fact that the furniture is to becrafted by a local artisan. Mary responds by texting back to Arkiïs™ thenew listing with the word ‘local’ added to the description. Arkiïs™receives the text and updates their listing to reflect her addition,sending a new alert to both Ted and Mary. Ted indicated in his Profilethat he is most receptive to ads when he is alone driving home fromwork. Arkiïs™ has detected a pattern in Ted's behavior indicating thathe is most responsive to ads delivered on Thursday afternoons on his wayhome from work in San Francisco, after he has been on the highway fortwo minutes. Additionally, Arkiïs™ has detected that Ted often travelswith others on Wednesdays and Fridays due to his regular participationin SyncGroups with his carpool friends on those days. On Thursday, Tedis driving home and listening to his smartphone over his car's connectedaudio system. The Arkiïs™ app on his smartphone detects the Bluetooth orwired connection and surmises that Ted is in his car and communicatesthis to the Arkiïs™ cloud servers to include this information in hisProfile. After he gets onto the highway, detected by the GPS on hissmartphone, either his phone preferences and/or his Arkiïs™ cloudProfile preferences are matched against his current situation to detectan optimal time for message delivery. Arkiïs™ continues and checks tosee that no other Arkiïs™ registered smartphones are in continuousongoing proximity to his location and turns on his smartphone'smicrophone to listen for any other voice prints that might be in thecar. Detecting none other, Arkiïs™ queries Ted audibly via hissmartphone to see whether he is indeed alone and Ted confirms ‘yes’which Arkiïs™ receives by way of his smartphone's microphone. Arkiïs™knows that there are three local artisans that can meet Ted and Mary'srequirements. The first is Jim's Custom Furniture that offers to pay him$20 to listen and respond to their two-minute ad. The second is Angela'sArmoires that offers $30 to review and send Feedback on a three-minutetelevision commercial. The third is Phillip's Fine Furniture that offers$60 if Ted is willing to take a five-minute phone call within fiveminutes of receiving a one-minute audio commercial, or if the call isdeclined after listening it only offers $10. With the knowledge that Tedis alone and getting on the highway, Arkiïs™ sends an alert to Phillipvia text message, email, or phone call querying whether he will beavailable to take a call with Ted, if he agrees after listening to thecommercial. Phillip acknowledges his availability. After being on thefreeway for two minutes, Ted is told by Arkiïs™ that Phillip's FineFurniture is currently selected to present a one-minute commercial nowif he would be available after the message for a short phone call withthe owner who is standing by and available. Ted can counter the offer,but instead decides to agree to the proposed terms and the commercialbegins and Phillip is notified that the call is imminent. 30 secondsinto the commercial, Arkiïs™ detects sudden deceleration in hissmartphone's accelerometer due to Ted's accident avoidance brakingtogether with a dramatically increased heart rate detected through hisArkiïs™ enabled smartwatch or smartphone-linked FitBit-like device. As aresult, Arkiïs™ interrupts Phillip's advertisement because theadvertising terms require attentive focus. Arkiïs™ then substitutesmusic known to be soothing to Ted. After Ted's detected heart ratelowers significantly and the car is traveling normally again, the musicis faded and the advertisement is resumed by replaying from the lastdesignated entry point before it was interrupted, in this case thebeginning. This satisfies the agreed-upon payout structure that requiresthat the entire ad be listened to without interruption. While the ad isplaying, Phillip's Arkiïs™ app calls an Arkiïs™ virtual conference roomwhere he then waits for Ted. Alternatively, Phillip uses his Arkiïs™ appon his smartphone to call Ted's phone. Either Phillip's smartphone hasTed's number and calls him directly or Arkiïs™ blocks Ted's number androutes the call indirectly through an Arkiïs™ call routing center. Ted'sArkiïs™ app detects the incoming phone call from Phillip andautomatically answers it without ringing or vibrating and places Phillipinto an immediate hold. At the end of the one-minute message, Tedaccepts the invitation to speak with Phillip and his phone retrievesPhillip's connection, sending an audible alert to Phillip to notify himthat Ted is now on the line. Phillip greets Ted and proceeds to learnmore about Ted's needs in-depth while showing how his Products will meetthose needs. They wind up the call after six minutes with Ted agreeingto discuss visiting Phillip that weekend with his wife. Ted earns thefull $60 having satisfied all the ad terms. Next Arkiïs™ serves up thetwo-minute ad for Jim's Custom Furniture. Ted is intrigued by their useof sustainably harvested wood from a local source. At the end of themessage, Ted is queried about his interest and he audibly indicates thatthe local sustainably harvested wood was the most appealing feature tohim from their message. Arkiïs™ sends Ted a message containing a link toa video where he can view examples of Jim's Custom Furniture that Jimhas already selected to most closely match Ted and Mary's professeddesires. The link includes notification that viewing the video withinthe next 2 hours will earn him another $5. During the rest of Ted'sdrive home, he listens to a podcast selected by Arkiïs™ about thehistory of custom furniture craftsmanship in America. While Ted is stillon the road home, Mary finishes the calculus class she teaches atFoothill Community College and heads home in her car. She is offered adsfrom the same two companies that contacted Phillip. Because Tedexpressed interest in Jim's Custom Furniture, their ad is presentedfirst to Mary. Given Ted's Feedback that he loved that they sourcedtheir wood from a local supplier employing sustainable methods, Arkiïs™serves Mary an alternate advertisement where Jim highlights this pointin much greater detail in a three-minute message that pays $20 andrequires no Feedback. At the end of the message, because Ted sent hisFeedback while using their SyncGroup Profile, Arkiïs™ asks Mary if shewould like to hear Ted's Feedback to Jim of what he liked. Mary acceptsand hears Jim's voice indicating his keen interest on having an armoirefashioned from local sustainably harvested wood. Mary is concerned thatlocal wood may not offer the range of grains and tones she wasimagining. Mary responds to Jim, and copies Ted, indicating that she wasimagining an armoire made from cherry and walnut wood. Mary asks ifthese can be locally sourced, or if not, if there is a comparable woodthat can be substituted. That evening after watching the thirdProvider's video ad and reviewing the follow-up pictures and videosprovided by the other two, after discussion Ted and Mary make theirfinal choice of Phillip. To purchase, they may call Phillip directly andhave Phillip enter the purchase through a Square-like app (such asavailable from Square, Inc., San Francisco, Calif.) that links with theArkiïs™ app and credits Ted and Mary for their performance.Alternatively, they can use their PayPal®-like account that is linkedto/included in their Arkiïs™ Profile to pay Phillip. Additionally, theymay make the purchase online using Phillip's Arkiïs™ enabled websitethat accepts their Arkiïs™ credentials as part of a PayPal® likepurchase. Alternatively, they may go in person and supply their Arkiïs™identification barcode that is swiped together with their credit card.Alternatively, their credit card provider may be linked with Arkiïs™ andtransfer their credit card purchase data into their Arkiïs™ Profile.Alternatively, their credit card purchase data may already be collectedby a website like Mint or Upromise and they have linked that website totheir Arkiïs™ Profile so that all data collected by the third party isautomatically integrated into their Arkiïs™ Profile in return forsharing a very small portion of their earnings or a fixed monthly feedebited from their earnings.

The following is another example usage scenario that illustrates one waythe disclosed system can be implemented. Josh and Tyler share anapartment in New York City and decide to splurge on the new Xbox® Onesystem. They have not chosen where they will buy it; however, they dowant to ensure that wherever they buy it, the store provides at least aliving wage to all its employees. Therefore, they edit their sharedSyncGroup Profile to record their intent and requirements. During aRangers game that evening, they receive a message from Arkiïs™ cloudservers that retailer J&R Music World® has recently put in place aliving wage standard for its employees in New York as validated by anon-governmental organization their SyncGroup Profile indicates theytrust.

6. User Profiles

An Arkiïs™ User may control one or more Master Profiles that areconnected to their identity and help to delineate their individualidentity. Profiles may be persistently stored in one or more computerdatabases (e.g. object oriented, relational, etc.) for manipulation,query, and retrieval into computer processing memory, such as in a cloudserver computer. As seen in FIG. 10, each Master Profile may contain oneor more Sub Profiles of select information from the Master Profile ofthe User's choosing. Some Sub Profiles may be public facing. Publicfacing Profiles may represent how Users appear to others and contain theinformation a User specifically elects to share with others. In someembodiments, a User may remain anonymous from others by using a privateProfile to anonymously receive Targeted Content from Marketers whosequeries match their private Profile. Profiles may be a subset of aUser's Master Profile, which in a preferred embodiment contains themaximum of their personal information available to be shared. Profilesmay also be salted with false information to provide heightened Userprivacy. For example, whole fictitious Profiles unlinked to real Usersmay be created, and the use of this false profile information cantrigger security alerts. In some additional embodiments, Profiles may befictitiously created whereby one creates a separate persona for oneself,but payouts can be based upon the performance of that fictitiouspersona, for example, one can have a Second Life® persona which can beserved ads that target that persona within the game. Fictitious Profilesmay be created as either a completely new Master Profile that isunrelated and unconnected to any other Master Profile or as a SubProfile that may override information from an existing Master Profile.

Individual Users may also control Sub Profiles for minor children andconsequently control the subject matter of Content that reaches them.The minor children's Profiles may be configured to be accessible byproxy from one or more guardians' Individual User Profiles.

The User may select what portions of their Arkiïs™ Master Profile areincluded in a given Sub Profile to control the privacy of theirinformation. The choices of what information to publish in theirProfiles may change over time. In a preferred embodiment, no one isallowed to attempt to correlate and connect together any of a User'spublic facing Profiles without permission; however, internal to Arkiïs'™servers, consumption history of the User's own Content across all of aUser's Sub Profiles may be utilized for the purpose of avoidingoversaturation of similar Content messages.

To ensure the accuracy of Arkiïs'™ Content and to protect its integrity,Users may be required to prove their identity for a Master Profilethrough various means such as by successfully answering LexisNexis®identity questions. A User may be allowed to use the system withoutproving their identity, but in such cases, their rights and abilitiesmay be limited for that Master Profile. For example, a User may not earnreferral bonuses for the creation of other Master Profiles they referredif either the referrer or referral has not proved their identity.Additionally, a User may not be allowed to vote in the governance ofArkiïs™ if their identity has not been proven. In a preferredembodiment, Business Users never vote in the governance of Arkiïs™. AUser may be given the option, for example through a check box on theirArkiïs™ preferences page, to begin using their Master Profile withoutproving their identity but later decide to supply proof of theiridentity and thus gain the rights and privileges granted to fullyidentified Users starting at the point they prove their identity.

In some embodiments, once a Master Profile is linked with a provenidentity, all the other Master Profiles of that proven identity may belinked internally, however, the visibility of other linked MasterProfiles may be hidden from Marketers. This allows the User some mannerof privacy between their Profiles but might make recovery of theircredentials to their unlinked Master Profiles more difficult dependingupon the level of isolation. For example, providing the login accountname of one Master Profile might allow recovery of the password from alinked Master Profile whose credentials are still retained.

An Arkiïs™ User may elect to register their existing grocery loyaltycards and credit cards to allow their Master Profile to automaticallyreflect actual purchasing decisions (as is already the practice withsites such as eScrip.com and uPromise.com) as illustrated in FIG. 11with Data collected by loyalty cards such as grocery purchases 1180.Additionally, they may register their online accounts at merchants suchas Amazon® (Amazon.com) and NewEgg (newegg.com) so that details ofspecific purchases may also be automatically included in their MasterProfile. In some embodiments, social networking sites such as Facebookand LinkedIn may be integrated with your Arkiïs™ Profile to help you getrecommendations (e.g. Sam is a friend of your best friend Mary, Sam hasreceived the highest integrity rating grade from Mary, and Sam is aChampion of a Product that you are interested in.)

To ensure the confidence and trust of the User, the security of theArkiïs™ system is carefully controlled and monitored. The User mayconfigure the security controls that gate access to viewing and editingof their Profiles. Controls may include, but are not limited to, variousbiometrics such as face, voiceprint, and handprint recognition togetherwith challenge questions they have configured to which generally onlythey know the correct answers, depending on the embodiment.

An Individual User's Arkiïs™ Profile as depicted in FIG. 12 may includeinformation such as the following examples:

-   -   Proof of identity through answering a series of credit history        questions provided by LexisNexis® (1216)    -   Income and their sources (1240)    -   Assets (1240)    -   Credit obligations (1240)    -   Mortgage/Rent obligations (1240)    -   Credit FICO® score for the three major bureaus (1240)    -   Gender (1218)    -   Sexual orientation (1218)    -   Religion (1218)    -   Political views (1218)    -   Age, Height, Weight, and Blood Pressure (1218)    -   Ethnicity (1218)    -   Education level (1218)    -   Children and optionally link to children's Profile (1224)    -   Marital Status and optionally link to spouse's Profile (1224)    -   Grocery purchases of individual and family as recorded through        loyalty cards (1220)    -   Spending patterns of individual and family as recorded through        linked credit card transactions (1220)    -   Consumer goods purchases as recorded through linked shopping        sites (1220)    -   Geographical location information through linked Foursquare        (Foursquare.com) account (1230)    -   Anticipated purchases and timelines of big ticket items (1202)    -   Advertising to which they desire or wish to exclude Content        (1236)    -   Desired Products or features which are not available today        (1210)    -   Badges earned for accomplishments (1204)    -   Registered televisions and cable providers (1206)    -   Reviews and ratings of Products (1208)    -   Persistent SyncGroups the User is a member of (1212)    -   Facebook posts and likes (1222)    -   Internet browsing history of pages visited and bookmarks (1226)    -   Wi-Fi networks visible from smartphone (1232)    -   Operating system and installed software on laptop computer        (1234)    -   Google Nest data including preferred temperature and patterns of        room usage at home (1234)    -   History of television shows watched on DVR (1238)    -   Coupons and rebates received and redeemed (1242)    -   Any other information that help identify an individual and that        may be used for targeting purposes (1298)    -   Associations based upon values, ethics, public or private        service (1214)

A User may elect to work with third parties to help and ease populationof their Profile, examples of which are shown in FIG. 13 and illustratedin FIG. 11 with data collected by 3^(rd) party data aggregators and/orwebsites on User's behalf 1160. For example, a User may choose to workwith a Provider such as Google® or Facebook® to have their mineddemographic information automatically populated into their Profile. TheUser may review and edit such automatically gathered data to makecorrections and fill in missing details is illustrated in FIG. 11 withdata corrections/edits/deletions by User 1150. In return for saving theUser the time required to manually populate their Profile, Google® mayreceive a portion of advertising revenue that was targeted based uponProfile information derived from Google®. A User may also choose topartner with their credit card issuer to populate their spending historyand provide third-party confirmation in return for sharing a portion oftheir revenues derived from such information as illustrated in FIG. 11with data collected by credit card and banking transactions 1170.

Each custom targeted streaming source for a Device, whether it is adedicated piece of hardware (e.g., local DVR or remote DVR), a Blu-Raystreaming application, a Roku™ channel, an HD radio, a tablet, or asmartphone, may be associated with its owner's Profile. In the case ofsource Devices that feed large displays that are shared, this Profile isoften the owner's family's SyncGroup Profile. Registering a sharedDevice eases deducing the audience due to the association with itsowner's Profile, minimizing the chance that another adjacent User'ssettings will influence the Device's presented Content. A Device'sregistration status may be stored within a database, allowing for simpleidentification of all Devices linked to a User. In some embodiments,numerous Users may register the same Device, either submitting ahierarchy of Users to determine whose settings override the settings ofother Users linked to the Device or jointly agreeing on the Device'ssettings (through creating a SyncGroup for the Device, or submittingsome form of mutual consent). When multiple Users register a sharedDevice, this further simplifies deducing the audience in a situationwhere multiple Users consume Content from a Device frequently.

For personal Devices, the Consumer is generally assumed to remain staticunless otherwise explicitly overridden (e.g., my daughter is using mytablet to view Content). However, depending on the embodiment, differentheuristics can also be applied to detect alternate Users (e.g., otherfamily members). For example, the Premium Content consumption patternsmay suggest that someone other than the registered owner is using apersonal Device. Facial recognition and gesture patterns can also beused to detect alternate Users. When an alternate User is suspected,they may be challenged to provide the owner's password if they claim tobe the owner or may select from suggested alternates and enter their ownpassword. When an alternate User is selected, any of their personalProfile Filters or parentally assigned limitations may apply in additionto or instead of the owner's Filtered or parentally assigned Contentlimitations depending on the embodiment.

The owner of a source Device may place strictures upon what Content maybe consumed on a Device registered in their Arkiïs™ Profile. AnyFiltering requirements may be honored regardless of whether the sourceDevice owner is present.

The following is a description of an embodiment of the Arkiïs™ systemwhere a Device is linked to a Profile: Michele is the owner of a sportsbar and has strong beliefs about the need to consume Products made inthe USA and has configured her Profile so that no ads for non-USA madegoods may ever be displayed on the screens in her sports bar that arelinked to her Profile. When the Google® cloud servers stream Content toher configured screens, the Google® servers first query the Arkiïs™servers for approval based upon her Profile so that Google® may deliverContent that meets her requirements. The only way to receive suchContent that does not conform to Michele's requirements in her sportsbar is on a different User's personal mobile Device brought into thebar.

Similarly, as shown in FIG. 14, minor children (or other contentcontrolled User) (1410) may be tagged with Filtering requirements tolimit, modify and/or control the Content (1440) they are exposed to. Achild may be tagged by registering a Device (1420) generally present onthe child and tracking the tagged Device's distance from other FamilyFriendly Devices (1428) such as a shared television and other Adult(1412) Family Friendly Devices (1422) such as a personal mobile devicethat are presenting Content (1440), as well as submitting the child'sface, likeness, or voiceprint to secure Arkiïs™ servers (1430) forautomatic recognition and subsequent Filtering. Furthermore, if multipleDevices are listed in the Arkiïs™ servers (1430) as being located in thesame house or dwelling or location (1400), each of the linked Devicesmay be configured as family friendly engaged when the child (1410) istagged as being located near any of the Devices (1422, 1428). Devicesmay be configured and/or locked down to be Family Friendly engaged, andwhen so configured, adhere (e.g., always adhere) to the strictestparental control or parent/guardian-defined Content Filtering (1450)settings in any situation that is known to include children, in suchconfiguration, Devices only reproduce authorized Family Friendly Content(1442) while Filtering (1450) out all unauthorized Other Content (1444).Depending on the embodiment, such Filtering may include controlling whatfiles, websites, audio, and video may be accessed with a Device. When achild enters an environment or location (1402), such as another family'shousehold with more relaxed Filtering requirements or presently allowing(1452) unauthorized Other Content (1444), all Family Friendly Devices(1424, 1426, 1429) such as Adult (1414, 1416) personal phones (1424,1426) and televisions (1429) may automatically honor the stricterFiltering requirements placed upon that child and only reproduceauthorized Family Friendly Content (1442). In some embodiments, theforegoing more restrictive filtering may include locking down previouslyallowed (1452) downloaded Content on such Devices so that such Contentcannot be accessed or reproduced during the minor child's presence. Animmediate audio, visual, or tactile alert may be sent by Arkiïs™ servers(1430) to any or all Devices of profile-configured guardians/Adults(1412) if a child ever comes in contact with a Device that is not anengaged Family Friendly Device. A parent may view a log of all theMarketing and Premium Content (1440) that has been served up to theirchild in the recent past, to monitor and be aware of what they arewatching when out of their direct supervision. In some embodiments, aregistered parent or guardian may request a certification throughArkiïs™ that some or all Devices registered to a different family wereengaged as family friendly during the duration of the minor child'sstay. In these embodiments, data is sent to a database every time aUser's or household's Family Friendly Content mode is engaged ordisengaged on a Family Friendly Device to facilitate this certification.In a preferred embodiment, a Device can be guaranteed to remain familyfriendly engaged for a set period and not allow relaxation of thecontrol until the guaranteed time has elapsed. Advertisers may alsoplace their own restrictions and refuse to advertise in situations whereunauthorized children might see their messages.

As shown in FIG. 15, Content Producers (1510) may agree to voluntarilylabel, classify, and/or tag the Content (1520) they produce alongvarious metrics that may be used for Filtering (1550). Consumers (1560)do not receive (1570) Content (1520) that is Filtered (1550). Suchdesignations may be attached to the work as a whole or on individualsections or pieces of a work (e.g. on specific dialog or text words oron subsections of a photo or video). Producers that inappropriatelylabel/tag their Content may be required to pay penalties and fundthird-party certification during a probationary period. Arkiïs™Consumers (1560) may choose Profile preferences (1540) for Filtering(1550) all Content supplied by Content Providers (1530) throughthird-party Independent Reviewer Certification (see Section 11—ProvidingFeedback on Content, Goods, and Services), which may audit suchlabeling, tagging, and or classifications in return for a portion ofTargeted Marketing Content revenues related to the consumption of suchContent in some embodiments. Any User may flag Content asinappropriately labeled, tagged, or classified. Producers found torepeatedly produce Content that is inappropriately labeled by arepresentative plurality or by a competent, certified review panel maybe barred from participation and have all their Content treated as beinginappropriate for all children whose Content is filtered. In addition, ageneric or specific child certificate may also be employed as a backupfor new advertisers to self govern whether they send a new advertisement(not yet vetted by others) to self regulate what may be sent to thatchild. Such certificates may also be utilized in the same manner foradults. Other controls may be employed to prevent inadvertent exposureto material that a Consumer has stated is undesirable.

When Content is delivered through Arkiïs™ cloud servers, such as whenviewing a personalized Roku™ channel, Content may be individuallycustomized and automatically censored when delivered to such feeds to“bleep out” or substitute profanity or other Content matching a User'sFiltering preferences, depending on the embodiment. In alternateembodiments, portions of videos or images to be Filtered may be overlaidwith checkerboard pattern substitutions to obfuscate portions deemedinappropriate. Arkiïs™ may be presented with a feed without anyFiltering and perform transformations on it to automatically Filter andreplace objectionable portions, as determined by a particular User'sProfile, before forwarding the feed on to that User. In both audio andvideo, the original signal may contain tagging to aid automatedFiltering and/or analysis may be applied to automatically block Contentwhen tagging is absent or suspect. In other embodiments, a Content feedmay be delayed by a few seconds so that the Arkiïs™ servers can detectprofanities and other inappropriate Content through audio and videorecognition, then censor the inappropriate Content before showing it toa viewer.

The following two example embodiments portray different Family FriendlyDevice settings possible through the Arkiïs™ system. Richard and Phoebedo not want their children to be exposed to messages promoting alcohol,drugs, or smoking and have therefore configured all the screens in theirhouse and all their family's mobile devices to prohibit any advertisingor entertainment that contains non-Family Friendly Content whichpromotes any of these activities. Additionally, they have flagged theirchildren's Profiles with this limitation and before allowing theirchildren to go to a friend's house, they first confirm that the Devicesin that child's home are configured to unconditionally honor theirfiltering requirements with a Family Friendly Device engagementregistration guaranteed for at least the time they will be in attendanceat that house. In the event that somehow their children are exposed tosuch messages or enter an environment where there is a potential forsuch, the Arkiïs™ cloud servers detect this and immediately send analert to both parents specifying the details of the violation, or in thecase of a potential violation, giving them the ability to outbid suchundesired messages before they can appear. Before going out to arestaurant, they also first confirm that the restaurant is a FamilyFriendly Location and thus adheres all its Devices to all child ProfileFiltering requirements. They may check a restaurant's Family FriendlyLocation status in many ways, including, using the Arkiïs™ website tolook up the restaurant, viewing the restaurant's Arkiïs™-enabledFacebook page, sending a text message with the establishment's telephonenumber to a special Arkiïs™ number that automatically texts back thestatus of the requested phone number's establishment, sending a requestvia an Arkiïs™-enabled Twitter hashtag, entering the proximity of therestaurant and checking their Arkiïs™ app on their smartphone forstatuses in their vicinity, etc.

Juan and Clarita are married and have two girls, ages 13 and 15, andconfigure their Profile to only accept advertising that is labeled asFamily Friendly Content by the independent Family Values Coalition (FVC)non-profit that has 12 million subscribers in the Arkiïs™ network. TheFVC enlists the aid of volunteers like Juan and Clarita to reviewContent (including both premium and advertising) and use the Arkiïs™cloud servers, by way of for example their smartphone, to give it aletter grade of ‘A’, ‘B’, ‘C’, ‘D’, or ‘F’ to indicate how well theContent represents the “family values” they wish to bring to theirfamily. Alternatively, they use the Twitter network of cloud servers toreport their grading and Twitter automatically links with their Arkiïs™Profile to register their grade. Juan and Clarita have designated thatonly Content achieving at least a ‘B’ on this scale is to be served totheir family. They decide to watch “Castle” (a crime drama) but thesoftware Filters out the latest episode that features a murder with abackdrop of sexually provocative dancers that is given a ‘C’ rating byFVC and instead they view an older episode rated with a ‘B’ that Arkiïs™knows they have not previously viewed. Because they have awell-established Profile in Arkiïs™ and a household income of $90K, theyonly need to view two 30-second commercials to cover the cost of thehour-long “Castle” episode they are going to watch. They decide to watchthese two commercials up front. Their Arkiïs™ Profile indicates they donot drink alcohol so two beer commercials that would have otherwise bidthe highest are rejected. Instead, the first commercial is forautomobile insurance and specifically targets their situation of havinga teenager who is about to begin driving with a program that recognizesher good grades in school and offers a lower rate as a result. Thesecond commercial is for a Disney cruise ship 5-day family vacation inthe Caribbean that caters to families with teenagers. Because theirProfile indicates that they are Latinos and that Spanish is theirpreferred language, both commercials are presented with Spanish audioand feature Latino actors. Both commercials were rated an ‘A’ by the FVCand after paying $2 for the otherwise commercial free viewing of“Castle” they still net $1 in earnings. After each commercial is viewed,the system pauses briefly while all four are queried for Feedback ontheir smartphones with specific questions based upon their individualProfiles. Once all four have provided their Feedback on theirsmartphones, their Arkiïs™ app forwards the Feedback to the Arkiïs™cloud servers, the servers are also providing the streaming Content andthe playback on their television automatically resumes. After the“Castle” episode completes they are also asked on their smartphones torate that episode on the Family Values scale. They also rate how wellthey enjoyed the programming and which aspects were the most appealingso that future Premium Content system recommendations from the Arkiïs™cloud servers can be more effective.

FIG. 16 is a Venn diagram that shows the various kinds of User Profiles(1600). In a preferred embodiment, Business Users may have and controlBusiness User Profiles (1620) for their business similarly to IndividualUser Profiles (1610). At the point that an individual person (e.g., anemployee) working for the business interfaces with Arkiïs™ on behalf ofthe business, they use an individual business Sub Profile that is ownedand controlled by the individual. A business has administrator (i.e.root) privileges over its individual Sub Profiles and can, for example,change the access level/rights or delete Sub Profiles if desired (e.g.,due to an employee leaving the company).

Just as Individual Users have Profiles, other business Participants haveProfiles such as Content Producer Profiles (1655), Content ProviderProfiles (1650), Marketer Profiles (1640) and Goods & Services ProviderProfiles (1630) have their own Business User Profiles (1620) in thepreferred embodiment.

A Business' Arkiïs™ Profile may include information such as thefollowing:

-   -   Proof of identity (e.g., government/certified documents)    -   Revenues, expenses, debt, and capital    -   Average, median, lowest, and highest wages of employees    -   Contractors providing services to the company    -   Benefits provided to employees such as health insurance and        retirement    -   Philosophical vision and goals of the company    -   Goods and Services categories and specific Products for sale        and/or planned for production.    -   Location(s) of stores or venues    -   Indexes of Products sold that specify their variations (e.g.        different sized packaging, different movie cuts), showings,        price, inventory and location(s) within store(s) and may include        aisle and shelf designations as well.    -   Hours of operation and performance schedules    -   Competitor(s)

In some preferred embodiments, Arkiïs™ also has provisions toaccommodate those Participants (i.e., Consumers, Reviewers, Marketers,Content Providers, Content Producers, and Goods & Services Providers)who may prefer complete anonymity for some interrelationships and thuswish to, for example, review, market, produce/provide Content, orbuy/sell goods and services that are provided through Arkiïs™ with cashor the like. Some Participants may choose anonymous interactions bydefault and only explicitly select to reveal their identity, on aninteraction-by-interaction basis. To achieve this, a Participant maycreate a secret virtual identity Profile and bank account and privatelyfund it with traditional currencies (e.g. US dollars) and/orcryptocurrencies (e.g. Bitcoin). For Users, this may be done in twoways, either by creating a separate anonymous Master Profile, or bycreating a new anonymous Sub Profile in their already existing MasterProfile. They then may use their anonymous Profile to purchase or sellgoods that are, for example, paid out of or into their funded bankaccount and delivered to or picked up from a prearranged locker box.Such mechanisms allow the Participants to have the anonymity of cash orcryptocurrency while still being a part of the reviewing, marketing,delivery or shipment of goods & services to and from a convenientlocation, such as their home.

Alternatively, if the User desires anonymous shipment to their home orfrom their business, the seller may be given a coded address label fromArkiïs™ to anonymously address a package and ship it with a standardshipping service. The seller may only know the cost to ship the packageand perhaps its zone or general delivery area, but not its exactdestination. This approach may also be applied to delivery to and fromdrop boxes. To help ensure privacy, the tracking software to ship thepackage may use a system analogous to Tor's onion routing Internetcommunication (see wikipedia.org/wiki/Onion_Routing) to hide theaddresses of the sender and receiver, only in this case, even the senderand receiver do not know each other's address, it is only the Arkiïs™system that has this knowledge. The Arkiïs™ system may know the senderand receiver Profiles and may compute a circuit or route for thepackage's delivery. Arkiïs™ may then provide the original deliverycircuit information and pricing to the shipper in an encrypted or codedformat. This may, for example, include attaching the package to areusable individual token generating apparatus where the tokens arerequired to prove the package's identity and location in order to learneach next step in the circuit from sender to receiver. Alternatively, ateach step of the circuit, the shipper may contact the Arkiïs™ servers toretrieve the next step of the circuit after proving the location andidentity of the package by providing, for example, a code number. Insuch a system, the Arkiïs™ servers may no longer respond to requests forthe next code number once a code number has already been processed. Thismay take effect immediately when the next code is provided or occur oncethe package has proceeded to some number of steps forward along thecircuit or continuum of distribution. Alternatively, the shipper mayonly know the general originating area and delivery area and compute itsown circuit or route between these, and only contact Arkiïs™ for finaldelivery instructions. An anonymous buyer may receive a code fromArkiïs™ that allows the bearer to retrieve the package without furtheridentifying themselves.

The following example describes how anonymous shipping may beimplemented in the system. Justin wishes to anonymously ship his packageto an anonymous purchaser through Arkiïs™. He purchases shipping for$10.85 and receives instructions to use UPS. He prints out an 18-digitalphanumeric coded anonymous address label provided by Arkiïs™ inconsultation with UPS that represents the circuit or route to thedestination. To help maintain his anonymity, Justin deposits the prepaidpackage at a UPS drop box in Eugene, Oreg. When UPS picks up thepackage, they bring it to the Eugene pickup center where a locationaware scanner that is registered with Arkiïs™ reads and submits the18-digit code to Arkiïs™ Arkiïs™ verifies the Eugene UPS location andscanner as valid together with the package code and provides a new codethat is put on the package in place of the first code. The new codedirects UPS to send the package to Springfield, Oreg. When the packagearrives in Springfield and is location scanned, Arkiïs™ provides thenext package code and removes the original Eugene package code from itsoutward facing servers to hinder any reverse engineering to determinethe package's ultimate sender or receiver. The supplied next codedirects UPS to now send the package to Portland, Oreg. At Portland, theSpringfield code information is removed from the outward facing Arkiïs™interface and the next code is generated for the package to now be sentto Ontario, Calif. However, due to error, UPS misroutes the package toDallas. When the package is location scanned in Dallas, theerror/exception is detected and Arkiïs™ adjusts the route inconsultation with UPS to omit Ontario and instead go directly toOakland, Calif. and generates a new 18-digit code to route the packageto Oakland, Calif. while clearing the Portland code information. Oncelocation scanned at Oakland, the Ontario code is removed and a new codeis generated to take the package to Sunnyvale, Calif. Once the packageis location scanned in Sunnyvale, the recipient gets a notification thattheir package has arrived at the designated UPS location and may bepicked up using their retrieval code or they may release an address fordelivery. The final route information is expunged from the Arkiïs™outward-facing servers.

Even though the Participant may be using an anonymous Profile, they maystill receive credit for their performance. Anonymous Feedback may beprovided for any interaction a Participant engages in or is connectedto. When such Feedback is subsequently reviewed, it may be identified asanonymous.

Before initiating an interaction, a Participant may opt out of the rightto provide Feedback or to have Feedback written about them. Thiselection is divulged to the interacting parties.

In a preferred embodiment, a User may elect to temporarily select acontrived Profile that does not actually reflect their demographics,this may be for the purpose of seeing what would happen to theirTargeted Content were aspects of their real Profile to change. This modeis revealed to the Content Producers who may prohibit their Content frombeing consumed under hypothetical Profiles. In preferred embodimentswith this mode enabled, actual advertising payouts and Premium Contentcharges are still based upon your real Profile, although you may be ableto see what the payout or charge would have been under the hypotheticalProfile, were it to be actual. One way this feature might be used is tosee what it can feel like to be a multi-millionaire. From an earlierexample, a Consumer interested in looking at yachts, but without themeans or intention to purchase one, may explore the subject through sucha hypothetical Profile. In such a manner, the Consumer's integrityrating of their Profile is undamaged or otherwise affected.

A User may also elect to enter a mode where they are represented by afictitious Profile or avatar that represents a virtual persona that theytake on in virtual worlds such as video games. In one embodiment, a Usermay enter this mode by selecting an option within their settings pagethat specifies that all activity will be attributed to their virtualpersona Profile until the option is deselected. Such designation mayoccur on one Device but may apply to one or more other Devices.Alternatively, such designation may be specified to automatically beactivated or queried for confirmation when one or more conditions occursuch as being in Proximity (Virtual or Physical) of one or moreparticular Users, based upon a calendar or time schedule, based upon anactivity or purchase, based upon arrival or departure to or from alocation, based upon a Device, based upon an application being entered,particular Content or genre of Content being consumed, etc. This allowsthe User to more fully engage in the role-playing of their persona andreceive ads that target their virtual persona. In this mode, the Usermay earn payouts but the payouts are determined by the performance oftheir persona-specific Arkiïs™ Profile. For example, a User mayappreciate playing Second Life® and may create an Arkiïs™ persona oravatar that represents their alternate identity in Second Life®. Thisallows them to receive in-game advertising that is targeted to theirpersona to purchase in-game goods for their persona.

A User may snapshot, borrow, or copy a Profile from a friend to helpbuild a fictitious Profile. This may be done with their friend'spermission. In some preferred embodiments, fictitious Profiles mayimport or auto-fill data from other Profiles, and may prompt Users tomanually input certain fields or approve their importation. SuchProfiles may be useful for the purpose of selecting a birthday gift thatis well suited for a friend. These Profiles may be further contrived oredited such as to adjust financial demographics to more closely alignwith any User. Users may also adjust preferences in order to limit sucha Profile to overlaps between their own Profile and their friend'stastes and preferences. In some embodiments, overlaps between a User'sProfile and their friend's Profile may be determined by analyzing sharedinterest keywords or similar browsing history data. Alternatively, anysimilar, common, or shared demographic information may be emphasized.Similar, shared, or common forward looking Assertions may also beemphasized. This may be useful for identifying a gift that can appeal toboth themselves and their friend or to find a gift they can sharetogether. Such joint Profile generating techniques may becorrespondingly applied to SyncGroup Profiles, for example, using ahusband and wife's SyncGroup Profile to buy a wedding gift for theirfriends based upon their wedding SyncGroup Profile or alternatively fora couple to buy a birthday gift for a shared friend, or alternativelyfor an individual to buy a wedding present for a SyncGroup couple. SuchProfiles may be informed by what objects or activities feature mostprominently in your life in order to help others effectively shop foryou.

The following example shows how a User may create and utilize afictitious Profile combining the interests of multiple Users. Kevin isshopping for his friend Lisa, and the shopping website he visits linksinto Arkiïs™ During shopping, the browser app accepts Kevin's Assertionthat he is shopping for Lisa and, honoring Lisa's permission settings,Kevin's shopping is guided and he may see Lisa's information including:her interests, her wish list, things she is looking for, proposed gift'scorrelation with other things she already owns, and Assertions of giftsshe desires from Kevin. The shopping site displays a score on eachpossible gift to rate Lisa's likely reception of the gift as determinedby Arkiïs™. Such grading may take into account emotional appeal, whethershe needs it right now, whether it is on her wish list, itspracticality, her likely emotional response, and coordination/matchlevel with her wardrobe. Kevin does not have full access to Lisa'sactual Profile, but is limited to seeing what is necessary and accordingto Lisa's permission settings, e.g. it does not disclose what kind oftoilet paper she uses, or show intimate details about her personalhygiene or hygienic purchases. Such a search includes the price pointKevin is looking for and the prediction that Lisa will like it. Kevinmay get ads targeting him based upon this purchase intent for Lisa; suchads may be ranked based upon the likelihood of Lisa liking the Product.While shopping for Lisa, Kevin may be targeted based upon other aspectsof his Profile unrelated to his gift buying for Lisa. Such ads mayrelate to purchasing for him or for gift buying for others he hasasserted. While his focus may be upon buying for Lisa at a given pointin time, he may fortuitously come across other opportunities that areparticularly well suited for his current context and thus may warrantinterrupting his search for Lisa with these other targeted ads. Such adsthat deviate from his immediate goal may be clearly marked as detoursthat may be advantageous, allowing him to decide for himself whether hewants to take any such detours.

Users may choose to associate their Profile with any wearable gadgetsthey adorn that change their appearance based upon their location,context, and other Users around them. For example, a t-shirt may containa display (e.g. through use of LEDs/light-emitting diodes) that variesthe Content shown based upon their interaction with other Arkiïs™ Usersin their vicinity to display their shared rankings and or interestsrelated to their carbon footprint, charitable giving, music,professional activities, sports, achievements, awards, etc.Alternatively, Users may share such information to a computing device inthe possession of those physically near them or virtually interactingwith them. A User may alter their Profile settings to automaticallyshare information (or configure to query for approval) with other Usersin physical or Virtual Proximity, or may actively share selected Profilefacts with friends or Users in physical or Virtual Proximity at anymoment, or may be prompted to approve sharing of information requestedby those in physical or Virtual Proximity. A User may have differentlevels of such divulging of information about themselves. They maychoose to manually increase the level over time. Alternatively, Arkiïs™may automatically assess a User based upon their Profile information,such as their integrity rating, and choose the level of revealing ofinformation based upon preselected Profile controls.

Users may also choose to allow the Arkiïs™ cloud to utilize theiridentity information and associate it with information collected by acomputing device in the possession of those physically near them orvirtually interacting with them in order to provide hints to helpfacilitate the identification of individual sources within suchcollected data. For example, Alice may be speaking to Bob and alerted byArkiïs™ (e.g. via text message or an Arkiïs™ smartphone alert) thatBob's smartphone is recording and her voice and Arkiïs™ cloud serversmay use Alice's Physical Proximity to Bob, as indicated by Alice'ssmartphone being in proximity to Bob's smartphone or by their beingjoined together in a SyncGroup, as a strong indicator to theidentification algorithm used in the Arkiïs™ cloud servers that one ofthe identified voices in Bob's smartphone audio stream is highly likelyto be Alice. Alternatively, when Bob takes a photograph with hissmartphone while they are near each other, there is a strong indicatorto the identification algorithm in the Arkiïs™ cloud servers that one ofthe faces and/or bodies identified in Bob's smartphone picture is highlylikely to be Alice.

In a preferred embodiment, Arkiïs™ members receive a MarketingPerformance Score (which is analogous to a FICO® credit score and is aspecific kind of integrity rating) that varies from one Product orservice to another and is objectively based upon professed anddemonstrated preferences, forward-looking Assertions (e.g. I'm gettingmarried in March), past purchasing behavior, track record of fulfillingtheir own previous predictions, and other measurable behavior data intheir Profile. If a Consumer lacks a track record with respect tofulfilling their own previous predictions in a given area then Arkiïs™instead deduces an average track record based upon similar Profiles. AProfile may be considered to be similar by the use of marketinggeodemographic segmentation, or in other embodiments, the use ofmultivariate statistical classification to discover whether Arkiïs™Profiles segment into different groups whose marketing performancescores are closely correlated. For example, statistical analysis mayreveal that single, college educated women aged 25-30 are 82% likely tofulfill Assertions related to durable goods purchases with a timehorizon of six months or less. Alternatively, when a Consumer lacks atrack record in a new area, their score can be predicted by looking attheir track record in other synergistic areas and finding like-mindedProfiles of others in those areas that also have a track record in thenew area and using these like-minded individuals to predict theConsumer's behavior in the new area.

The following is an example usage scenario of the disclosed system.Phoebe has a 95% rate of fulfilling her purchase predictions in consumerelectronics and has recently made a bunch of predictions aboutpurchasing household appliances for which she does not yet have anytrack record. Therefore, her Profile is matched against other Arkiïs™Profiles for individuals with similar demographics and who also have asimilar rate of fulfilling their predictions in consumer electronics.These matching profiles are then used to predict her fulfillment rate inthis new area of household appliances. The prediction weights thepredictive factor from matching Profiles based upon how well thoseProfiles correspond to her own profile.

To assist in building a Profile that includes detailed and objectiveinformation, Arkiïs™ allows Consumers to link their Profiles asillustrated in FIG. 11 (User's Profile 1100) with data aggregators suchas credit card companies (data collected by credit card and bankingtransactions 1170) and merchants (data collected by merchants 1190).Members may also enlist an expert (or a parent may act as an expert fortheir child) to build and automate the continued expansion of theirProfile in order to optimize their payouts in return for a small portionof the gain. A User may enable the access to their Profile by such anexpert who may access their Profile using login credentials unique tothat expert but with proxy access to the User's profile so that theexpert may make changes to the Profile as if they were the User butcreating an audit trail that identifies the source of such changes asbeing the expert. These independent sources of information, togetherwith other information such as personal and professional references,help to increase the accuracy of their score, leading to greaterpayouts. For example, Jim's credit card purchase history helps validatehis ability to buy a new BMW® sports car that was also recentlypurchased by his close friend, Andy, both of these facts support theaccuracy of the high score he received for buying the BMW® in the nexttwo months.

Arkiïs™ may deduce which aspects of a User's Profile are not easilyautomatically built from collected data sources and occasionally promptthe User to fill in some of these details. For example, a large portionof a User's Profile may be automatically built from the details of theirpurchasing histories, but statistical analysis may show that purchasehistories poorly correlates with a User's political preferences,therefore, a User may be asked to manually supply information abouttheir political ideology such as illustrated in FIG. 11 data enteredmanually by User on web page 1120, data entered manually by User ontelephone call prompt tree 1130, or data entered manually by User onmobile device app 1140. Similarly, purchase history may not correlatewith a person's eye color, and thus a User may be asked to supply thecolor of their eyes. This allows Arkiïs™ to gather details of a User'sProfile via periodic prompts over time to build up the Arkiïs™ Profilewith greater depth. Such prompts may include simple questions withsimple multiple-choice answers to allow easy responses from the Useranalogous to dating compatibility questions on OkCupid®. Depending uponanswers supplied, subsequent questions may be adjusted to account forprevious answers and follow on questions may drill down for more detailin areas of interest to advertisers based upon previously suppliedanswers (through use of, for example, filter or contingency questions)as demonstrated by those advertiser's search criteria and payout offers.

In some embodiments, advertisers may place a premium on targeting basedupon more detailed information and thus pay more for ads delivered toUsers with matching detailed Profiles. Arkiïs™ may recognize patterns insuch ad requests (for example, through association rule learningalgorithms including the Frequent Pattern-growth (FP-growth) algorithmand the Apriori algorithm, which highlight relations between variablesin large databases), and project the added ad payout value a User mightreceive by providing certain types of information. Arkiïs™ may directthe User to supply those pieces of information for which the greatestvalue is estimated to be derived for them.

The following is an example usage scenario of the disclosed system. Samis presented with an opportunity to expand his Profile with informationon the home he owns and told by Arkiïs™ that by spending 15 minutes tofill out a survey about his home, he will likely increase his ad revenueby 20% over the next six months. Sam agrees and during the survey heindicates that he last replaced his hot water heater five years ago witha 50-gallon gas fired water heater and that he does not anticipatereplacing it for another five years. He is then targeted with an adasking if he realizes his current water heater is wasting approximately$200 per year and in 2.5 years, this new on-demand hot water heater canpay for itself, and over five years you would save $500 compared tosticking with his current hot water heater plus get the benefit of notrunning out of hot water when multiple showers are being taken at once.The ad is so compelling—and fact checked by his trusted consumerhousehold goods Reviewer who he shares part of his ad revenue with inreturn for unbiased fact checking on goods being marketed to him—that hedecides to go ahead and replace his hot water heater today instead ofwaiting five years as he originally was planning.

A Marketing Performance Score (410) may also be used to predict theeffect a particular ad will have on a Consumer's buying tendency for aspecific Product and thus help determine how much an advertiser iswilling to offer in an actualized bid (430) to present that ad to theConsumer's Content selector (208). For example, Arkiïs™ detects apattern where individuals who highly rated a certain racing school adand who also specified they were going to buy a luxury car in the next12 months, became 15% more likely to buy a BMW® after watching an adincluding an offer for free racing school lessons with any BMW®purchase. This example broadens across groups of ads and or Contentwhich together create synergies that may, in aggregate, increase ordecrease a Consumer's buying tendencies towards a specific Product. Forexample, Arkiïs™ statistics may show that viewers are more likely torespond positively to a milk ad when preceded by an ad for chocolatechip cookies when followed by a cooking show featuring cupcakes. Unlikethe FICO® credit score, the Consumer is allowed to see and dig into thecomplete calculation details to fully understand their score and howthey can improve it by changing their future behavior.

The following scenario exemplifies how a Marketing Performance Score maybe used within the disclosed system. Julia states in her Profile, bylogging into her Arkiïs™ Profile online, using her computer, that she is90% likely to buy her first new car, a sedan, for less than $35K in thenext 3 to 6 months and to finance the purchase. This is called anArkiïs™ Assertion. Her performance will be tracked by Arkiïs™ and usedto influence her Consumer Marketing Performance Score generally, andweighted more heavily for other potential purchases related to her otherpending Assertions with similar characteristics (e.g. purchase pricemagnitude, time horizon, or Product category) these types ofprojections. Given that she has no Arkiïs™ history but is confirmed tobe a recent graduate of college (as demonstrated by her diploma suppliedto Arkiïs™ or a school-validated transcript or her confirmed membershipin the school's alumni SyncGroup or the school's Profile links with herProfile and Julia has sent an Arkiïs™ data release to the school and theschool has provided her confirmed school records) and is also confirmedto have just started her first job earning $40K a year (as demonstratedby two recent paystubs supplied to Arkiïs), her Profile is statisticallymatched by the Arkiïs™ cloud servers against similar historicalConsumers and found to be 63% likely to follow through on her Arkiïs™commitment to purchase a car. Ford Motors decides to run a targetedadvertising campaign to recent college graduates whose Arkiïs™ Profiletranscript confirms they did well in math. The campaign is for theirFusion Energi in the hopes of building brand loyalty for future carpurchases. Ford submits to the Arkiïs™ servers a request to deliver oneof several customized ads to those Users who graduated from collegewithin the last year, averaged B or better in their math curriculum orparticipated in classes or clubs that focus on protecting theenvironment, intend to buy a car in the next year, have a professedinterest in the environment, and can afford the payments based upon aprice of $500 above dealer invoice at $38K with a five year loan at 1%.Ford also provides Arkiïs™ a formula that calculates how much potentialtargeted viewers can be paid based upon their Profile contents. Profilecriteria utilized include the projected likelihood of actually buyingany car in each of the next twelve months as shown in FIG. 26. Julia'sProfile matches and Arkiïs™ applies the formula to her Profile andcomputes a $5 offer, which she accepts. This car would be a bit out ofher price range, but based upon her Profile's matching characteristicsFord offers the pre-negotiated price together with financing that canmake it fit her budget. Additionally, since her Profile shows herfavorite color is purple, the ad she receives is the variant that showsthe car in its blue-purple exterior paint color. Four months later,Julia ends up purchasing a Prius and not the Fusion Energi, but becausethe Prius purchase matches her professed intention that she recorded,she builds positive history. This allows future advertisers to ascertainthat her likelihood of following through on future purchase intentionsbased upon her past behavior now shows she is 87% likely to followthrough on big-ticket items and thus now the ad she was previously paid$5 to view would now be worth $7 were the same scenario to repeat today.

All Content provided by Arkiïs™ may be Filtered based upon theapplication of Content preferences in a User's Profile. For example, ifa person desires to exclude Content related to the sale of guns, theycan ensure, through their Profile, that no gun advertising reaches themthrough Arkiïs™. For Content that passes a User's Filtering preferences,it may then be graded as to how well the Content matches the User'sProfile stated interests and desires. There are multiple dimensions uponwhich Content may be independently graded. Dimensions of grading mayinclude how well the Content matches a User's point of view in: humor,emotion, politics, demographics, present physical location, presentsocial context, projected travel path, and preferences, etc.

The Filtering and grading of Content may vary contextually (e.g.,location, likely travel path, current or recent activity, or state ofmind) by what a User has recently done by deduction from clues in theUser's Profile together with mobile device data such as GPS, motion,accelerometer data, calendar data, etc. Depending on the embodiment,Filtering and grading may also vary by the User's emotional state (e.g.mood), recent activity, recent Content consumption, current news events,and whom they are SyncGrouped with. This may include their recentcommunication history culled from their caller ID log, Skyping, texting,etc. and the identity of communicating parties and the nature of thoseparties' typical interaction for the present context as captured intheir Profile and the vocabulary, tone of voice, etc. in thecommunication (e.g., Sally's mood usually improves after communicatingwith her mom, for example, they shared a joke with each other andlaughing can be detected in the communication). Content might also beFiltered out at one time based on context, but not at another time, in adifferent context. Similarly, Content might be graded differently indifferent contexts.

The following example usage scenario describes how contextual clues caninfluence the Content delivered to a User. Carol has been using Siri onher iPhone® to dictate messages for the past year and has becomecomfortable with her words being recorded and sent into the cloud to betranscribed. Therefore, she has decided to allow Arkiïs™ to listen in onher smartphone's and/or smartwatch's microphone during phone calls andwhen she is not on the phone but comfortable being recorded (e.g. inpublic locations) for the purpose of better targeting her state of mindand has configured her Profile using her Arkiïs™ app on the smartphoneto allow this or configured using the Facebook interface which is linkedto her Arkiïs™ Profile. As she talks on the phone her recorded words aresubmitted to the Arkiïs™ cloud servers for transcription and tonalquality analysis to help deduce emotional state and this information ismined for clues as to what she is thinking and feeling. When Arkiïs™ ismonitoring the audio of her phone it may use her phone's location inorder to alert other Arkiïs™ Users whose Profile preferences requestnotice when they are within proximity of an Arkiïs™ enabled Device thatis actively recording and thus their words can be recorded. Arkiïs™servers combine this information with the context of to whom she istalking that is based in part upon matching up their phone number orother means of connection (e.g. Skype® handle) with her Profileinformation. Arkiïs™ discovers that Carol is talking to her mother andasking for advice about dating given an unpleasant date she was on theprior night, at Benihana's Steak House, where she ended up arguing withher date about women's rights and he left her with the bill and no ridehome. From this information, Carol is subsequently targeted with anadvertisement for OkCupid® dating site that focuses on philosophicalcompatibility. However, Benihana omits sending her a message, which, inthe absence of her conversation with her mom, would otherwise have beeninappropriately targeted toward her.

An advertiser may place a premium on sending a message when a User is ina particular location or is projected to soon be in a locationinteresting to the advertiser (e.g. near their store or near acompetitor). An advertiser may offer to provide, pay for, or subsidize aUser's travel to their store. This may take the form of premium parkingreservations, valet services, or subsidy and defraying transportationcosts including fuel and public transportation fares. An advertiser mayprovide a shuttle bus to bring customers to and from their location andlocate passengers by way of their Arkiïs™ Profiles by sending targetedads that query whether the User would like a lift, and direct the Userand a shuttle to efficiently meet by creating a SyncGroup led by theshuttle. An advertiser can coordinate with idle taxis for reduced-rateshort shuttle rides also coordinated by the Arkiïs™ system. For mobilebusinesses such as a dog grooming service on wheels, Arkiïs™ can targetads to potential nearby customers providing offers on a limitedfirst-come basis to fill in unbooked time and facilitate directingcustomers to the mobile business efficiently when, for example, parkedoutside an office building or on a public street.

The following is an example embodiment of the disclosed system. Juanitajust completed exercising at the gym. Arkiïs™ was able to deduce thisactivity by observing that her phone's GPS showed her location at PlanetFitness and corroborated by connecting to the Wi-Fi at Planet Fitnesswhile she was there and also identifying her pattern of repeatedlyvisiting this location on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons each week.Additionally, her Arkiïs™-enabled smartwatch detected elevated heartlevels consistent with a workout regimen for the past 45 minutes.Further, in her Profile, she indicated that she has a Planet Fitnessmembership and her smartphone's and/or smartwatch's accelerometer pickedup a pattern of motion consistent with exercise for the past 45 minutes.Finally, Juanita has linked her Fitbit® account (where she records herworkout) to her Arkiïs™ Profile. Together, these data points give thesoftware running on the Arkiïs™ cloud servers a very high confidencelevel to the conclusion that she has just been exercising and is now onher way home from the Gym. Therefore, the cloud servers decide inconjunction with a Marketer that they will send Juanita a targetedadvertisement when she is next projected to be on her way to the Gym andis in her car listening to a custom streaming audio feed from hersmartphone that is fed by the Arkiïs™ cloud servers. The ad is to be fora competing Gym that can offer her a free personal training session in asmall group workout using fitness trampolines if she comes then insteadof going to her normal Gym. The closely targeted ad pays her threedollars since it is playing shortly before her next gym visit and offersher free valet parking at their entrance. Another commercial targets heron her way home from the Gym (as detected by her smartphone's locationand movement monitored by her Yelp app that is connected to her Arkiïs™Profile on the Arkiïs™ servers) and is for a new yogurt shop that justopened around the corner from the gym where she is now and that serveshigh-protein non-fat yogurt and offers her a full serving for free forcoming by in the next fifteen minutes and trying it out in the hopesthat she will make them a part of her gym ritual. They also offer herreserved on-street pre-paid parking within a one-minute walking distanceof the entrance.

The Arkiïs™ system may utilize a certificate that indicates a predictionof how any given marketing message, Content, Product, or service matchesan individual's (or SyncGroup's) Profile(s). FIG. 17A shows a variety ofdifferent Visualizations for the certificate that may be employed.Different areas of the Visualization represent different aspects of aperson such as their predicted emotional or logical response to amessage, or whether it relates more to their personal or family life.Color-coding also encapsulates aspects of the message's fit to one'sProfile. Alternatively, the Visualization may be a two-dimensional orthree-dimensional geometric shape, which may depend on the number ofparameters a Consumer would like to view in conjunction with eachmarketing message—for example, a Consumer specifying six parameters canhave a cube as a Visualization with each side a different color andrepresenting a different aspect of the message's fit to the Consumer'sProfile. If only five out of six aspects are fulfilled, the cube willappear to have one side missing, corresponding with the aspect that wasnot fulfilled. The Visualization may also be depicted as a DNA helix,with base pairs that are depicted in different colors corresponding withaspects of the message's fit to the Consumer's Profile. Connected basepairs may represent matching aspects, and unlinked base pairs mayrepresent aspects that do not match. Other possible Visualizationsinclude a pyramid with separate levels each representing an aspect, astar with each point representing an aspect of the message's fit to theConsumer's Profile, an emoticon or table of emoticons which are happy,sad, or neutral depending on whether or not marketing matches arepredicted to match an individual's or SyncGroup's Profiles, etc.Alternatively, Consumers may choose certain aspects they would like anadvertisement to match and pick percentages depicting how important eachaspect is to them, with the sum of the percentages adding up to 100%(e.g. humor=25%, family values=10%, alcohol-free=5%, local company=20%,scientifically correct=20%, contains animals=2%, good videography=13%,NGO certified=5%). Consumers may vary their choices for how matching isdetermined and may create temporal, spatial, and social rules thatautomatically control such choices, for example, a User may desire funnymessages in the evening and serious messages in the day or alcohol-freewhen at home or family values when in a SyncGroup with theirpartner/spouse. A horizontal bar may depict a user-defined threshold asa vertical line intersecting the bar, and the matching aspects may bedepicted in different colors on the bar, with their percentages added updenoting whether an advertisement meets the matching threshold shown onthe bar. A Consumer may specify in their Profile that certain aspectsare absolute requirements and others are relative, for example, a Usermay require that a trusted NGO certifies that a Product is absolutelychild-labor free but is willing to accept an environmental requirementthat a Product is carbon-neutral relatively and thus accept messagesabout a non-carbon-neutral Product if the message pays them enough orhas other mitigating characteristics such as being humorous enough.Visualizations may have features that only appear when a marketingmessage or Product matches with the Consumer completely, or matching ispast a certain triggering threshold. For example, a star Visualizationmay light up, a pyramid may depict a beam of light coming out of itsapex, colored beams of light may combine together into a white beam oflight through a prism, an outline of a shape may be filled in, etc.Third-party add-ons to the Arkiïs™ system may allow the Visualization tobe customized. The Visualization may also be utilized for providingFeedback on a marketing message. Once a message has been consumed, theConsumer may adjust the visualization to correct it to match theiractual perception of the message's relation to their subjectivepreferences. For example, if a message was predicted to rate very funnyfor a User, but the User only found it somewhat funny then they cancorrect the Visualization to reflect their actual subjective feeling ofhow funny it was. Such Feedback may be used to refine the system'sprediction of funniness of that message for other Users, and withstronger weight for those Users with similar tastes to the User,further, such Feedback may also be used by the system to learn andbetter predict the User's feelings for future messages in a mannersimilar to Netflix's movie prediction ratings. There are embodimentswhere the Visualization may be represented completely or in part by anaudio depiction (e.g., an easily recognizable series of chords beingplayed). The initial Visualization values may be predicted using aneural network based on Profiles of other Consumers that have alreadyviewed and corrected their predicted Visualization to reflect theiractual response and how those Consumers' Profiles relate to one's ownProfile. FIG. 17B shows a sample certificate which takes the form of aVisualization derived from something like da Vinci's Vitruvian Man wherethe head, heart, hands, etc. may light up to depict a relative matchlevel for logical thinking, feelings, skills, etc.

In the case of physical world Products, a User may scan the Product or aQR code in order for the Product to be identified to the Arkiïs™ systemand a customized certificate retrieved for that product for a particularUser. Such certificate may be viewed on a User's mobile device.Alternatively, a Product may have packaging or shelving that detects aUser's presence by the proximity of their mobile device and retrievesthe certificate for that User and displays such certificate on theProduct packaging or shelving. Such packaging may be reusable andremoved at the point of purchase for reuse.

Just as a User can choose to follow Reviewers, a User can choosealternate grading algorithm plug-ins. When a User configures theirProfile to use an alternate grading algorithm plug-in, a portion oftheir earnings may be shared with the author(s) of the alternate gradingsystem for the period that such system is employed.

The following example usage scenario describes how an alternate gradingalgorithm plug-in may be utilized within the Arkiïs™ system. Jerrylearns that his friends, Joe and Mike, are working on a new Arkiïs™plug-in that is specialized for sports fans. Jerry configures hisProfile using his laptop and an Arkiïs™ web page in a browser to startusing it to support his friends and because he is an avid sports fan ofthe Lakers. Once configured, the Arkiïs™ cloud servers update hisstreaming feed to utilize the plug-in and his digital on-screen graphicis updated to a basketball, hoop, and backboard to depict how wellContent matches his Profile, with a swish indicating a perfect match.This algorithm weights his interests in sports, and particularly theLakers more heavily than normal and utilizes the recommendations offamous sports figures. After using it for a week, Arkiïs™ servers haveautomatically shared $0.35 of his $12 in earnings that week with Joe andMike.

The grade of Content may be visually represented using a standardizedgraphic that represents how well the Content matches a User's Profileoverall and in various dimensions such as humor, logic, emotion, andpolitics. In group consumption (see Section 9—Sharing TargetedAdvertising between Users) situations, the shared First Device may showthe match for the group as a whole and each User's Alternate Device mayshow their individual match level. The Visualization may be shown on thescreen like a digital on-screen graphic (i.e., off in one corner andsemi-transparent, see wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_on-screen_graphic). Bydefault, the graphic may appear temporarily at the beginning of Contentand then disappear after a short period, however, the User may configurethis behavior or use their remote control to pull it up again or hide itin a particular instance. The grade of live Content may be provided oneach User's Alternate Device.

In a preferred embodiment, the grading system uses an adaptive algorithmand statistical analysis to predict how well Content matches yourinterests and objectives. Additionally, a User may choose to follow therecommendations of other Users they trust. For example, a User mayselect likeminded humor critics in their Profile and only consumeContent that has been previously reviewed by one of these critics thatthey trust and given a positive rating in the humor dimension. Inreturn, the humor critic may get a small payout taken from the User'searnings for consumed Content that is selected based in part upon theirrecommendations and guidance.

FIG. 18 is an information flow diagram in an exemplary Content ranking,Filtering, and alerting system that can be used in conjunction with thetechnologies described herein.

In FIG. 18 Profile Information 1800 together with Contextual Information1820 are applied to Content Meta Information 1810 (e.g. certifications,certifiers, reviews, reviewers, Product, etc.) in the ContentRanking/Filtering Engine 1830 to find the Highest Ranked Content 1840for transmission to the User. A User's Profile Information 1800 mayspecify that the User will be alerted if Content surpasses certainthresholds (e.g. the payout amount for Content surpasses a certainthreshold, or the humor rating of Content surpasses a certainthreshold). If Content ranked by the Content Ranking/Filtering Engine1830 surpasses any of these User-specified thresholds, a Threshold AlertTransmission 1850 will occur. Threshold Alert Transmission 1850 mayinvolve sending an alert (e.g. audio, visual, haptic feedback, etc.) tothe Device or Devices (e.g. smartphone, tablet, wearable computingdevice) of a User identified with Profile Information 1800.

Similar to the Arkiïs™ marketing score, a Goods & Services Provider mayreceive an Arkiïs™ Goods & Services Provider score to assess thelikelihood of a User being satisfied with that Provider. The scorecombines the assessments of other Users with similar outlooks to theUser and Reviewers they may have elected to trust. In some embodiments,assessments cover the truthfulness, interestingness, and funniness ofthe Provider's marketing messages. Assessments by those who actuallypurchased the goods or services being sold also determine the Goods &Services Provider's effectiveness in meeting the marketing message putforth. A User's Profile may include prohibitions that block targetingfrom Goods & Services Providers that do not meet various metrics oftheir choosing such as, for example, requiring that at least 80% oftheir customers are satisfied with their purchases. Thus, the integrityrating of Users increases the economic efficiencies by increasing thelikelihood of honest interactions.

7. Alternate Device Synchronization

To optimize the coordination of an Alternate Device (e.g., a smartphonedelivering Targeted Content) with a First Device (e.g., television), theAlternate Device application/platform may be synchronized with theContent being delivered on the First Device by configuration of theexact channel or station source being consumed (e.g., being watched orlistened to) on the First Device. This may be done heuristically bygathering contextual information along with hints previously provided bythe Alternate Device User in their Profile and presently, specificallyabout what they are consuming to deduce the likely channel source andContent being consumed along with alternative matches that are ranked bytheir likelihood. The Alternate Device User may confirm or correct theproposed match as required, potentially providing more informationresulting in a new set of ranked results.

The following table (Table 1) enumerates contextual information that maybe used by the heuristics to identify the Content Provider (e.g., Cox orDish Network) and Premium Content channel, i.e., Content source, (e.g.,Monday Night Football on FOX broadcast channel 2, House Hunters onComcast HGTV, or The Big Bang Theory on CBS broadcast channel 5):

TABLE 1 Content Metric Provider Content Source Mobile device locationinformation Yes No gathered from GPS, cell towers, and Wi-Fi networksdetected by the mobile device. The present time and date No Yes Usingthe microphone of the mobile Yes Yes device to listen to the audioportion (using of the Premium Content being commercial delivered on theFirst Device and audio) submitting this to the cloud to identify theContent being delivered. (This is akin to the Shazam mobile applicationthat identifies a song from brief clips gathered by a mobile device.)Using the video camera in the Yes Yes mobile device to watch (and listen(using (also using digital as above) the video portion of the commercialon-screen graphic to Premium Content being delivered video) identifyContent on the First Device and submitting Provider) this to the cloudto identify the Content being delivered. (This is an extension of theShazam idea, but applied to video instead of audio.) Arkiis ™ Profileinformation about Yes No Content Providers to which User subscribes.(e.g., Comcast and Netflix) Arkiis ™ Profile information about No YesContent preferences. (e.g., favorite football team is the San Francisco49ers) Arkiis ™ Profile information about Yes Yes friends and familyArkiis ™ historical consumption Yes Yes patterns Hints provided by Useron their No Yes mobile device. (e.g., “I'm watching football.”)

In a preferred embodiment, this Alternate Device synchronization may beconfigured to assist in automating the building of a User's Profile.Once Arkiïs™ is aware of Content being consumed on a Device that is notintegrated with the Arkiïs™ system or when consuming Content on anArkiïs™ integrated Device or from a Device reproducing a feed from anArkiïs™ coordinated source, a User's Profile can be expanded to includethe history of Content being consumed. This Profile history canfacilitate the addition of features such as the seamless ability tobegin consuming Content on one Device and completing it on anotherDevice. This may be accomplished by tracking the Content time position(i.e. playback location) a User has reached or in the case of liveContent the absolute time at which playback was interrupted. The Contentposition may be easily known when fed from an Arkiïs™ source or whenconsuming from a non-Arkiïs™ source the position may be known by theArkiïs™ servers also monitoring the same non-Arkiïs™ source in the cloudto identify a relative position within a feed. While consuming from aFirst Device, which is not Arkiïs™ enabled, a User's Alternate Device,which is Arkiïs™ enabled, can follow the First Device by monitoring itsaudio and video feeds in a Shazam-like fashion. In this way, a User'sAlternate Device can detect the Content time position at which theyseparate from the First Device or the First Device ceases to transmit aparticular feed and this position may be recorded in their Profilerelative to the Content whose receipt was suspended. This positiontimestamp may be associated with a corresponding point in the Contentindependently monitored by the Arkiïs™ cloud servers and thus allowsubsequent DVR like resumption from their suspended position on adifferent Arkiïs™-enabled Device. The Arkiïs™ cloud servers maycoordinate alternate distribution feeds of the same Content and allowUsers to seamlessly switch between feeds (e.g. begin watching a sportingevent on a radio and switch part way through to a television or asmartphone). This coordination across Devices applies to all forms ofContent including Premium Content and Targeted Marketing Content.

The following is an example usage scenario that illustrates one way inwhich the technology described herein can be implemented. Helen isvisiting her daughter, Jennifer, in her new, sparsely decoratedapartment. They both decide to watch an episode of House Hunters that isjust now airing. Both of them are Arkiïs™ Participants, and becauseHelen is in close Physical Proximity to Jennifer, their AlternateDevices offer to hook up into a SyncGroup (see Section 9—SharingTargeted Advertising between Users) for group coordinated sharedconsumption. (Their computers, smartphones, smartwatches, or otherwearable computing devices that are Arkiïs™ enabled hook up due toPhysical Proximity detected by one or more of the following means: usingBump Technologies-like technology, using GPS, using Wi-Fi routerlocation triangulation technology, or using direct communication viaBluetooth, Wi-Fi, Near-Field Communication, and/or infraredcommunication (IR), etc. An Arkiïs™-enabled Device is one that includessoftware that communicates with the Arkiïs™ cloud and/or otherArkiïs™-enabled Devices through the installation of an app, firmwareupdate, factory-supplied Arkiïs™ chip or ROM, SIM-like card, and/oradd-on hardware device like the Square™ mobile credit card reader thatattaches to the host device to make it Arkiïs™-enabled.) Helen is usingher computer as her Alternate Device and receives a pop-up dialog,email, text message, instant message, and/or other means of notificationindicating that she may wish to join into a SyncGroup with Jennifer. Shefollows the link provided in the notification to an Arkiïs™ dialog orreplies to the notification to accept the SyncGroup. Because she sharesseveral key demographics (e.g. they shared the same old address in theirProfiles for a long period when Jennifer was a child), Arkiïs™ stronglysuspects that Helen and Jennifer are mother and daughter or at leastclose friends. Helen is queried as to whether Jennifer is indeed herdaughter, which she confirms. Jennifer turns to her phone after her momhas accepted and sees that her phone is now asking for confirmation tojoin into a SyncGroup with her mom, which she accepts. Because they arenow linked up and are in Jennifer's apartment, the Arkiïs™ servergathers the contextual information that Jennifer has in her Profile thatshe receives her Content from Cablevision. Helen speaks into herAlternate Device, “We are watching House Hunters.” This is recorded andsubmitted to the Arkiïs™ cloud which processes Helen's speech in aSiri-like fashion to understand (possibly combined with lip-readingtechnology for improved accuracy) what she said and combine this hinttogether with their viewing location to deduce that House Hunters isbeing viewed through Cablevision. It sees that only the HGTV channel ispresently broadcasting an episode of House Hunters, but it detects thatHelen has already seen this episode and instead sends back a suggestionto both Helen and Jennifer to watch a different episode that neither hasseen before (as indicated by their Profiles) and may be shown on demandusing Jennifer's personal Arkiïs™ Roku™ channel. Jennifer accepts on herAlternate Device and her Device automatically sends IR and RF codes toher First Device to change the Device source to her personal Arkiïs™channel. The First Device queries via Roku™ how they wish to consumethis episode with several on-screen choices including paying for it tobe ad-free and watching sufficient commercials to pay for it up front.They decide to watch their ads up front and Jennifer scrolls throughthese choices using her smartphone Arkiïs™ app and selects their choiceon the First Device. They are given a single 30 second TargetedMarketing Content advertisement for a local consignment furniture storethat has several couches in stock since Jennifer's Profile indicates sheis actively looking to buy a couch and it sees that her mother hasalready purchased some furnishings for Jennifer since she has moved in.It further offers her a 10% discount coupon if they come by the storetoday together. This one targeted spot covers the cost of viewing thewhole House Hunters episode without any further commercials. After HouseHunters, they decide to earn some cash and select their next mostvaluable commercial, which in this case is not the same ad.Consequently, the First Device feed from Roku™ splits the screen in halfand delivers the video to each of them simultaneously, while providingtheir individual audio via their smartphone's Bluetooth headset or bylistening to the smartphone that delivers their audio portion. Tosynchronize the audio and video being delivered on separate Devices, thesmartphone or other Alternate Device may accept the audio directly fromthe Roku™ box or other DVR-like device feeding their First Device.Alternatively, the audio may be sourced from the cloud or a cellularnetwork and buffered on the audio device and the audio and video arethen synchronized by direct communication between the local video deviceand the audio device by way of Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or other locallow-latency communication up front and periodically during messagedelivery. The audio on the Alternate Device may need to be bufferedfurther ahead in time if it is downloading more slowly than the video onthe First Device to ensure that by the end of the message the audio iscompletely downloaded. Alternatively, to ensure uninterrupted messagedelivery, both audio and video may need to be fully downloaded beforethe message begins and the two signals are synchronized.

As another heuristic approach (e.g., in combination with other heuristicapproaches), the User can specify identifying information for theContent currently being consumed (e.g., Content Provider such as atelevision network, cable network, radio station, streaming Internetprovider, etc. and/or Content identifier information such as a broadcastor cable channel number, program name, time and date, geographicallocation, etc.). For example, if the User is consuming particularContent (e.g., a specific television show, movie, or another type ofprogramming Content), then the User can select a channel (e.g., aspecific broadcast channel, cable channel, etc.), network (e.g., cablenetwork, traditional broadcast network, etc.), Provider (e.g., aspecific cable or satellite provider, a specific Internet streamingprovider, or another type of Provider), day and time (e.g., theparticular day and/or time that the Content begins), and/or location(e.g., whether the User is watching at home, at a sports bar, or atanother location). As an example, if the User is watching Monday NightFootball, the User can select a channel (e.g., channel 500), a network(e.g., ESPN), a provider (e.g., Comcast cable), and a time (e.g., 6:00PM PDT).

8. Coordination Between Devices

The Arkiïs™ User may consume a spectrum of alternative Content rangingfrom Premium Content that they must pay to consume to high value,focused, Targeted Marketing Content that may earn them money whenconsumed. See FIG. 8.

Various technologies exist today to automatically detect the transitionto and from commercial Content in a live Content feed. For example, ablack screen is sometime inserted, or a change in the Content volume canbe detected, or a large change in scenery. To date, broadcasters havenot wished to facilitate such detection since it works against theiradvertising interests when it is coupled with DVR ad-skipping technologysuch as Dish Network's Ad Hopper.

However, with the revenue sharing possibilities of Arkiïs™, this dynamicis changed and broadcasters can benefit from such ad detection in theirfeeds. Arkiïs™ may create a standard for broadcasters to follow toindicate the beginning and end of commercial breaks along with dynamicpredictions of when a commercial break will end for live broadcasts.These may be encoded in the broadcast signal such that they are notreadily apparent to the Consumer. Strategies for encoding can includeadding steganographic (hidden message) information to the followingportions of the signal:

-   -   Digital video feed    -   Closed captioning feed    -   Digital audio feed    -   Guide Plus+ feed    -   Radio Data System (RDS)    -   Vertical Blanking Interval (VBI) lines

Alternatively, broadcasters may provide a direct confidential feed toArkiïs™ through the cloud to help ensure only those who will compensatethe broadcaster for skipped commercials use the information. This feedmay be shared with Arkiïs™ Users such as on their smartphones that maygive an estimated countdown to when Premium Content will return.

The following example shows how the detection of commercial Content canaid in choosing the best targeted advertisements to show to a user:Peter is a Lakers fan and is watching a Lakers game against Miami Heatfrom his home. With 30 seconds to go in the game and a score of 110 to109, Miami calls a time-out with possession of the ball. ABC goes tocommercial break during the time-out and transmits an initial estimateof 3 minutes duration or Arkiïs™ computes their own estimate based uponstatistical analysis for time-outs in similar basketball game scenarios.Peter begins watching a targeted two-minute commercial. ABC continues tobroadcast a 3-minute duration, so at the end of that commercial, Peteris served up a one-minute commercial, however, fifteen seconds into hiscommercial, ABC changes their estimate to be 2.5 minutes based uponMiami's players returning to the court. Peter's Profile indicates heonly wants to view basketball games live and is not willing to view afeed lagging even by a few seconds since he often gets on the phone withrival friends that are Miami fans and wishes to be synced up with theirviewing. Therefore, upon ABC's notification, he gets a popup graphicsuperimposed over the commercial indicating the game is about to returnand when the referee is about to put the ball in play and broadcastreturns, Peter's second advertisement is truncated mid-stream in orderto return to the live TV feed without missing any action. At the nextcommercial break, Peter's targeted feed returns to the truncated secondadvertisement he was watching before and resumes play at the lastentry/rewind point (these are encoded in the commercial by the producer)that precedes where he broke out at the end of the last commercialbreak.

Another alternative to consuming targeted advertising made possible bythe Arkiïs™ system is a simple countdown clock, reproduced on either theAlternate Device (e.g., mobile device) or First Device, to indicate theestimated time till the end of the commercial break and the resumptionof Premium Content. Such a clock can also include an audio componentalarm to audibly alert to when the commercial is nearly finished. Theend of the countdown may be estimated through statistical sampling andShazam-like recognition (through comparing spectrograms and/or otheracoustic fingerprints) of individual advertisements so that knowledge ofhow long particular advertisements run may be used. The countdown timemay change as the estimate changes and the User may be alerted tosubstantial changes to the estimate. The broadcaster may coordinate withArkiïs™ to provide detailed projections and alerts to make the countdownestimates more accurate.

The following scenario exemplifies the utility of implementing acountdown clock within the Arkiïs™ system. Andrea is watching AmericanIdol and is taking a break during the commercials and pauses heralternate Targeted Marketing Content as the Primary Content goes tocommercial and her targeted advertising is about to begin. Both thetelevision (First Device) and her smartphone (Alternate Device) countdown the dynamically changing estimate of time remaining until thecommercials end and the Premium Content resumes by retrieving thisevolving estimate from the Arkiïs™ cloud servers. This includes an audioalert at count down intervals beginning at 90 seconds (one beep), 45seconds (two beeps), and 15 seconds (three beeps) to give Andrea theability to leave the room but retain awareness of when the commercialbreak will most likely end.

In some implementations, information identifying Content currently beingconsumed can be provided by a User's mobile device as illustrated inFIG. 19 Alternate Device 1920 providing local coordination and control1970 of First Device 1910. For example, the User's Alternate Device 1920(e.g. a mobile device) can function as a remote control for a FirstDevice 1910 (e.g., a television). When the User selects specific Contentto reproduce on the First Device 1910 (e.g., selects a specificbroadcast channel or cable channel), then the mobile device can provideidentifying information (e.g., channel, network, location, day and time,etc.). For example, the mobile device 1920 can run an application thatprovides the identifying information to a targeted advertising system1960 so that the targeted advertising system (servers 1960) can providetargeted advertisements to the User at the time generic advertisementsare presented on the First Device 1910. In some implementations, theapplication on the user's mobile device 1920 can perform otherfunctions. For example, the application can mute (local coordination andcontrol 1970) the First Device 1910 while targeted advertisements areconsumed by the User on the mobile device 1920 (e.g., so that the Useris not interrupted by a generic advertisement being played on the FirstDevice 1910). The application can also pause 1970 a DVR 1910 if atargeted advertisement is being played on the mobile device 1920 and ifthe targeted advertisement runs longer than a corresponding genericadvertisement on the First Device 1910, then the application can resumeplayback 1970 on the First Device 1910 when the targeted advertisementis over (e.g., by resuming playback 1970 at the beginning of the Content1930 that the User 1940 was consuming). If the targeted advertisementruns longer, then the application may choose a shorter targetedcommercial to compensate in the next commercial break (e.g., byselecting a shorter targeted advertisement(s) such that they do not runlonger than the corresponding generic advertisement(s)).

As illustrated in FIG. 19, an Alternate Device 1920 (e.g., smartphone),after synchronization 1970 with the First Device 1910 previouslydescribed above, can help orchestrate 1970 the behavior of the FirstDevice 1910 by acting as a remote control 1970 and sending infrared (IR)or Radio Frequency (RF) commands to the First Device 1910, to 1970 muteand unmute or change channels to alternate (possibly targeted) PremiumContent 1930, or to a specialized Roku™ channel that contains thetargeted advertising 1930 for an individual Arkiïs™ Consumer 1940.Additionally, in embodiments where the User 1940 provides Feedback 1950using their Alternate Device 1951 (instead of providing Feedback 1950using their First Device 1952) while consuming the targeted advertisingusing the First Device 1910, targeted advertising can be paused 1970before and resumed 1970 after such Feedback is provided as directed bythe Alternate Device 1920. Alternatively, the synchronization 1970 of anAlternate Device 1920 may proceed before the First Device 1910 is tunedto the desired Content 1930, wherein the Alternate Device 1920 performsa search given a description of the desired Content 1930, and aftersynchronization 1970 the Alternate Device 1920 may act as a remotecontrol for the First Device 1910 including the option to power it on,select an input source, select a Content channel, and/or adjust theaudio levels 1970.

In some embodiments, a User may temporarily enter a do-not-disturbperiod within which they will not be presented with ads. The period maybe recurring on a schedule or occur in response to a one-time request.The period may only apply to a particular medium such as television orradio. The do-not-disturb periods may have configurable limits orcontrols that allow time-sensitive or high priority messages to still bepresented. The period may be tied to an event such as the duration of asports event. The filtering may also be tied to a genre such as no foodcommercials allowed after 7 pm. In general, the User has completecontrol over when and what and how advertisements are presented to them.

An Arkiïs™ User may configure alerts in their Profile to send anotification to their mobile device which is in signal communicationwith the Arkiïs™ servers, for example, to cause it to vibrate when ahigh paying ad is about to be served to a shared First Device that theyare SyncGrouped with. Advertisers may wish to send a message during asporting event when a team has an exciting scoring event to build uponthe elation felt by the scoring team's supporters and to deliver amessage for which they will be more receptive at that moment and thuswould be willing to bid a higher price to reach a targeted audience atthat moment. In addition to contextual First Device data, the system mayalso consider data from voice recognition, facially-based orvocally-based mood recognition, heart rate based on wearable computingdevices, accelerometer data, and/or text messages to identify situationsduring which an advertiser can send a message regarding a temporarilyincreased payout for consuming or responding to an advertisement. Anadvertiser's matching criteria and payout formula for their message maycontain certain inputs which take advantageous situations for messagedelivery into account, setting up increased payout in advance.

An embodiment of the system exemplifying targeted advertising alerts isas follows: Joseph is a Pittsburgh Steelers fan, as shown in his Arkiïs™Profile, and he is in a sports bar watching one of their games. With 50seconds left on the clock, the Steelers have just scored a dramatictouchdown to take the lead. Their opponents have just called a time-outand a commercial message is now ready to be served up. Corvette wants totarget Joseph for an ad for their new model year car and offers him $5to view and respond to their ad at that moment given his elated state asconfirmed by his Arkiïs™ enabled smartwatch's detection of an elevatedheart rate. His mobile device's Arkiïs™ app causes his phone to vibratethree times to alert him, 15 seconds before the ad airs, that a highpaying ad is about to come his way. He pulls out his smartphone and seesthe alert that he will earn $5, which just adds to his good mood fromthe recent score, and he turns his attention to the screen. The ad isdisplayed and, at the end, he returns his attention to his phone toanswer a few short questions in the Arkiïs™ app that are supplied by theArkiïs™ cloud to confirm he viewed the ad and provide Feedback thattakes around 45 seconds and satisfies the payout requirements and hereceives his $5.

Similarly to alerts about high paying advertising, when consumingContent on Devices owned or controlled by someone else, in the case thatforthcoming Content would violate your Profile requirements, you may getan alert on your phone giving you the chance to separate yourself fromthe Device before the offending Content is served up. An alert may be inthe form of, for example, one or more of: an audible alert through aDevice's speakers, light emitted from a Device's screen or camera flash,and vibration.

Another kind of advertising alert is for a Product going on sale inwhich you have previously expressed an interest. For example, Amazon®can have a Lightning Sale for the next fifteen minutes on a laptop youare considering buying as part of your Assertion to purchase a laptop inthe next month. Your smartwatch can vibrate and direct you to check youremail for the limited-time special offer from Amazon® that additionallyincludes a coupon for free two-day shipping.

9. Sharing Targeted Advertising Between Users

Group consumption is best at locations where there is Targeted ContentDelivery to First Device to enable shared consumption of targetedadvertising.

Arkiïs™ Users combine together into a SyncGroup when they join togetherin a group to collectively share consumption of Content, communicatewith other group members, and/or network with other like-minded Users. ASyncGroup may be formed from members that are in Physical Proximity toeach other or alternatively that are in Virtual Proximity to each otheror a combination of both. An example of a SyncGroup formed due toVirtual Proximity is Arkiïs™ fortuitously noting that your friend orgroup of friends is also about to watch the same show that you are aboutto watch. You can be asked, through a visual, audio, and/or tactilenotification on any of your Devices, whether you would like to join upwith them to watch the show together in a SyncGroup. Automatic SyncGroupcreation with certain Users watching the same show may also be enabledin a User's Arkiïs™ preferences. Virtual Proximity may also includeUsers with a Physical Proximity to each other. Virtual and/or PhysicalProximity may come and go but a User may elect to remain in a SyncGroup.Alternatively, a User may return to a previous SyncGroup they were inthat has a persistent Profile even though they may not presently be inVirtual and/or Physical Proximity with other members.

Members of a SyncGroup may elect to integrate one or more communicationtechnologies into their group including telephony, video conferencing,text messaging, instant messaging, Skyping, Twitter, Instagram, Facebookposting (e.g. wall posts), etc. depending on the embodiment. Each membermay configure, using their Arkiïs™ app on their smartphone, how theywish to receive and send their communications. For shared displays, theymay agree to configure the sending and receiving of communications formembers using a particular shared display to be via the shared display.While in a group, members may be able to send messages only to specificindividuals of the group instead of to the whole group. Third partiessuch as Twitter, Facebook, and Skype® may choose to provide integratedArkiïs™ functionality with their Products and directly communicate withthe Arkiïs™ cloud servers to notify them of messages sent by othermembers of SyncGroups. In an alternate embodiment, Users may providetheir login credentials for third parties and allow Arkiïs™ to log intotheir third party accounts from the cloud to receive messagenotification. For example, in some embodiments Users may send textmessages to a special number associated with their SyncGroup and havethose messages appear to each User, such as by a quote bubble appearingsuperimposed over the Content they are sharing along with anattribution. Such messages may be omitted from the display being used bythe sender to receive group messages. Members may receive their messageson either one or more first Device(s) or their one or more AlternateDevice(s). Messages may be integrated into Content feeds by the Arkiïs™cloud servers or overlaid on top of Content by display and Content feeddevices or presented on an Alternate Device that may not be receivingthe Primary Content feed. Another type of message is survey/votingresults, which may also be integrated into or overlaid upon Contentfeeds. SyncGroup members may configure their viewing to display surveyresults for Arkiïs™ surveys or for surveys in third-party applicationslike Twitter and Facebook. These surveys may provide real-time Feedbackas to what Consumers are thinking regarding a show as it unfolds. Forexample, in TV shows, such surveys may indicate what viewers thinkshould or is likely to happen next. Depending on the embodiment, surveyresults may be configured to display individual responses, SyncGroupaverage responses, total audience average responses, and/or etc. Suchdisplays of survey results may compare and contrast results acrossdifferent groupings (e.g. males vs. females or SyncGroup members vs.total audience.)

The following example usage scenario describes the use of SyncGroupswithin the Arkiïs™ system. After graduating from high school, Ashley,Lisa, and Julie have each gone off to different colleges but wish tomaintain their friendship. On Wednesdays, they get together in a virtualSyncGroup to view new episodes of their favorite show, ArrestedDevelopment. They join up each week and share synchronized viewing ofthe episodes along with a shared 60-second commercial for the group topay for their viewing. During the show, they use their smartphones tovideo chat with each other and talk about the show as it unfolds as ifthey were in the same room together. Ashley's new friend Jennifer hasjoined the SyncGroup and is physically present with Ashley. By default,the SyncGroup advertising would be skewed toward Jennifer because shespends ten times as much as the other girls. However, in this SyncGroupJennifer has configured a separate incognito Sub Profile to representherself that does not make her stick out relative to her new friends.Without this, the SyncGroup Targeted Marketing Content would be skewedtoward her and her proclivity for Coach Products. Instead, the Profileshe has adopted for this SyncGroup makes her appear more in line withthe norms of her age group and thus with her new friends. Because she isusing this alternate Profile, her addition to the SyncGroup has notdisrupted the Targeted Marketing Content they would get without heradded presence. Because the viewers are in different time zones, theSyncGroup naturally avoids targeted ads that payout more duringdinnertime hours. This is because their selection would only payout wellfor Lisa, who is on the East Coast, since it is only dinnertime for hereach week when they view whereas it is well before normal dinnertime forJulie in Mountain Time and Ashley and Jennifer in Pacific Time.

Arkiïs™ Users in SyncGroups may elect to maintain a group Profile. Forexample, an Arkiïs™ User may join together with their spouse to create apersistent or ongoing SyncGroup Profile to share information, such asfuture intents, spending, and income between their two Individual UserProfiles. Their SyncGroup Profile enables joint marketing that maytarget both of them together as decision makers, such as for purchasinga car.

FIG. 20 shows the general steps and factors in creating and updating aSyncGroup Profile. A SyncGroup Profile may be limited by the Profiles ofthe members of that SyncGroup. For example, a User may prohibit thecreation of a SyncGroup Profile for a SyncGroup they are a member ofwithout their consent. SyncGroup Profiles may be configured to allowmore or less control over the changes made to that SyncGroup's Profile.In some embodiments, a SyncGroup may allow any member to edit itsProfile, or may only allow a subset of its members to edit its Profile.The same processes that are used by organizations such as described inthe book Democratic Rules of Order by Fred Francis and Peg Francis,available from Cool Heads Publishing, Merville BC, Canada(democraticrules.com), may govern a SyncGroup. In alternate embodiments,a SyncGroup Profile may require a majority to approve proposed changesbefore they take effect or may require some other plurality of Usersagree. In other embodiments, a SyncGroup may allow any member to vetoproposed changes. A SyncGroup's rules, constitution, and/or preferencesmay be visible to the public or only visible to members, based onpreferences agreed upon by the SyncGroup members. A User's Profile mayspecify a default authorization for SyncGroups they join and newlycreated SyncGroups may default to the most stringent authorization ofany of its members. In some preferred embodiments, a SyncGroup'sauthorization may change from its initial setting by some form of mutualconsent, some of which consent may be offered by default for somemembers based upon preferences in their own Profile. Mutual consent maytake the form of, for example, on-screen electronic display andacceptance, text message query and reply of consent, or voicerecognition and/or lip-reading of an affirmation of consent presentedverbally or gesture recognition such as nodding the head in agreement,shaking the head to signify no, or giving a thumbs up or down signal.

SyncGroups may have a designated member who is the group leader. Thegroup leader may be the only group member whose identity is shared withother group members. With the consent of another group member, theleader may pass their leadership role to the consenting other member.The group leader may serve to indicate the group's location and mayserve as a beacon to bring the other group members together. A ProductChampion may create a SyncGroup where they are the leader. In someembodiments, when a SyncGroup has a leader, the group's identity followsthe leader when one or more members including the leader leave thegroup, perhaps to form a new group.

FIG. 21 is an exemplary SyncGroup Profile creation and notificationsystem that can be used in conjunction with the technologies describedherein.

In FIG. 21 User Profiles 2100, 2101, . . . , 2109 are combined togetherto Create SyncGroup Profile 2110. Upon Profile Edit 2120 of SyncGroupProfile 2110, Notify Participants 2130 occurs via Email 2140, TextMessage 2141, Phone Call 2142, . . . , App Alert 2149.

A SyncGroup may be formed intentionally by a group, or grown byspontaneously searching for friends (or compatible Users) that arepresently available to join a new virtual group. In some embodiments, aUser inviting another User to connect their Profiles as being friends inthe Arkiïs™ system identifies them as being friends to the Arkiïs™system. Additionally, linking ones Profile with other online socialnetworks including Facebook, Google®+, Twitter, and LinkedIn mayidentify friends or potential friends to the Arkiïs™ system by thosefriends having also linked their Profiles to their social networkaccounts. Another method of identifying friends involves importingcontacts from linked email accounts or smartphone contact lists. In someembodiments, friends may also be suggested by pattern matching of namesand demographic information to suggest matches in the Arkiïs™ systemthat are likely to correspond to real world friendships. Friends may besuggested based upon shared values, ethics, politics, religious beliefs,tastes, preferences, common friends, purchases, or other possible linksto each other. Friends may also be suggested based upon sharedrelationships such as confirmed friends held in common, commoninterests, locales, and/or employers. In some embodiments, invitationsto become Arkiïs™ friends may require demonstration of an actualconnection such as by answering questions about a member or providingidentifying information such as email address, telephone number, orphysical address. Demonstration may also include uploading photographsor audio samples of a friend that the system can confirm matches theidentity of the target friend. In other embodiments, to preventadvertisers or other Users from adding Profiles they do not personallyknow to glean information from Users, Users may set theirdiscoverability settings to require a one-time passcode (given to theUser searching for their friend by the User being found) or require theuse of NFC, Infrared communication, etc. so that Users must be inPhysical Proximity to become friends on Arkiïs™.

A friendship connection within the Arkiïs™ system can be used foradvertising purposes, e.g. by predicting a User's desires based on thoseof their friends. For example, if five of a User's friends buy fishinggear, the User may receive advertisements for fishing gear that may listthe friends who recently bought fishing gear, so that the User can jointheir friends. However, in a preferred embodiment, friendshipconnections can only be used for advertising purposes if both Usersagree that the connection can be used for advertising purposes.

A User may also seek to create a SyncGroup of like-minded individuals byusing Arkiïs'™ targeting capabilities to reach out to other Users thathave a high likelihood of sharing their interest and a desire to jointogether for support and communication. Each User may configure in theirProfile the discoverability of their interests by other Users for thispurpose. Configuration choices include, private (not discoverable byanyone unless explicitly shared), selected friends or groups of friends,all friends, 2^(nd) level connections (friends of friends), 3^(rd) levelconnections, or everyone. Other configuration choices include matchingcriteria, such as only by women, or only by those that have a particularinterest or trait. A User may change their discoverability preferencesfor a Sub Profile or subset of information individually, withoutaffecting discoverability preferences for the rest of their information.

In a preferred embodiment, Arkiïs™ may be used as a platform toaggregate multiple social media feeds, expanding a User's Profile and,thus, increasing their relevance to advertisers while the User browsessocial media in a streamlined and convenient fashion. Theconfigurability of Arkiïs™ allows a User to fine-tune their feed bylimiting the friends and followed accounts whose Content is importedinto Arkiïs™ Furthermore, a User may choose settings to filter outContent from their feed, for example Content including inappropriatelanguage or external hyperlinks. In some embodiments, a User may postdirectly from the Arkiïs™ social media feed. A User can choose whichlinked social media accounts to post to from Arkiïs™ for each post, aswell as fine-tune privacy settings for each post. Feeds may be importedand posts may be exported using Open API (i.e. public API) technology.

A User may utilize Arkiïs'™ discoverability preferences (e.g. selectedfriends or groups of friends, all friends, 2^(nd) level connections(friends of friends), 3^(rd) level connections, or everyone) to utilizetheir connections on Arkiïs™ or on social media accounts for networking,advertising, and contributing to causes they find important. As shown inFIG. 13 at 1302, 1304, 1306, 1308, a User may obtain potential friendsand/or connections from a variety of sources. As seen at 1310, A Usermay specify in their settings that they want to be notified of how manyfriends, groups of friends, or other Users using Arkiïs™ are within acertain radius (e.g. ten miles) at any given time. This notification maybe automatic or in response to a query by the User. The User can notifythese friends in close proximity to join them at a location at which theUser is currently present, or will be present at a certain time in thenear future (1310). A Goods & Services Provider may be notified that aUser is inviting friends to their property, either automatically orthrough an alert sent by the User, and may offer the User a portion ofthe profits from any resulting sales and/or donate a certain percentageof the profit to a charity of the User's choice and/or offer the Userand his or her friends coupons through Arkiïs™ (1314, 1316).

The following example embodiment shows how Arkiïs™ can be used toconnect with friends and find nearby friends. Since it is Friday, Chloehas decided to take half the day off from work and visit her favoritesnow ice café, Arctic Fluff, after lunch. She drives to the complexwhere the café is located, arriving at around 1, and orders a turkey andavocado sandwich from the restaurant next door. As she waits for hermeal, she decides she wouldn't mind some company for dessert and checksArkiïs™ on her smartphone to see if any of her coworkers, collegefriends, and close friends are in the area. She has already createdthese groups, so she selects checkboxes to search for nearby Arkiïs™Users within these three groups, and drags a slider to limit her searchto anyone within a 10-mile radius. Chloe is surprised to see that shehas 46 connections within this radius who allow friends to view theirlocation. On the same page, she searches for Arctic Fluff to see if theyhave an Arkiïs™ Profile, and finds that they do indeed have one. Afterselecting Arctic Fluff as a message recipient on the same search page,she sends an anonymous message to the owners stipulating that she willinvite all 46 connections to their café within the hour if 10% of allproceeds are donated to the Women's Global Empowerment Fund, a charityshe supports monthly which aids women in northern Uganda througheducation programs and microfinance loans. The owners agree to theseconditions and Chloe sends an invitation for all 46 nearby connectionsto meet at Arctic Fluff at 2, along with a picture she has taken of herfavorite snow ice: half strawberry and half mango with strawberries,mangoes, yogurt chips, and strawberry drizzle on top. The owners send toArkiïs™, a coupon for 15% off a medium or large snow ice with a validArkiïs™ cash identifier that is distributed to Chloe and the friends shehas invited. Seventeen of Chloe's friends show up; by using theirArkiïs™ cash identifiers, they receive 15% off their snow ices and$13.60 is donated to the Women's Global Empowerment Fund. By the timeChloe and her friends have finished their dessert and theirconversation, it is already 4:30. Chloe plans on attending happy hour ata dive bar a few miles away and wants to see as many friends aspossible, so she changes her Arkiïs™ settings to automatically notifyher every 30 minutes of how many friends are within a 5-mile radius.

In some preferred embodiments, advertisers may create fun games thatpromote their Products through competitive play amongst friends and alsoprovide some form of compensation such as game winner prizes or ProfileBadges that are visible to friends. For example, a company may have anew Product they are rolling out to the market and offer a game aroundthe new Product that allows friends to compete where the winner gets afree Product sample. Games can be audio, video, tactile, and/or movement(accelerometer) based. During the evening commute, co-workers can play afriendly audio game as they wait in rush hour traffic. Arkiïs™ providesthe infrastructure to link together the friends into a game SyncGroupwhere they can see each other's progress and relative standing. In someembodiments, the game may include linking the group together inreal-time for live audio or video so that they can compete directlyagainst each other and see and/or hear each other.

The following example embodiment of the system describes group gameplaythrough Arkiïs™ Nancy, Betty, and Kris are friends driving in a cartogether on their way to the beach. Nancy is driving her own car whereshe is streaming her virtual Arkiïs™ station from her smartphone that isconnected to the car's entertainment system. All three have theirsmartphones with them and because they have already linked theirProfiles as friends on Arkiïs™, they are automatically synced up into anArkiïs™ group after being in close Physical Proximity for more thanthree minutes. While driving, Nancy's radio is synced up to the group asdescribed in Alternate Device Synchronization and begins streamingContent that is customized based upon their three Profiles combined.Because their Profiles all allow it, their radio prompts them asking ifthey would like to play a new game that promotes a new romantic comedythat is coming to NBC. The game is a word game where words from theseries are incorporated into the play so that the players will becomefamiliar with the series' concepts and themes. The game takes about tenminutes to play while they are driving and the winner, Betty, receives$5 and for participating all receive free commercial-free access to thefirst three episodes.

The Arkiïs™ Alternate Device application (e.g., mobile phone app) andshared First Devices may facilitate Users joining together into aSyncGroup. In some embodiments, SyncGroups are formed by detecting groupconsumption situations due to sustained Device proximity for Users thatare logged into their Profile on their mobile device. Such detection canbe performed on a server in the cloud, with each Device registering itscontextual information with the server, which then organizes Deviceowners into SyncGroups. In other embodiments, SyncGroups are formedthrough direct communication among pairs of mobile devices. IndividualDevice owners may join into a SyncGroup that can merge any other Usersthey may already be paired with into a larger group, merging previousSyncGroups into a larger SyncGroup. Depending on the embodiment, directcommunication between mobile devices can be through Near FieldCommunication (NFC), Bump Technologies like validation/coordination(analyzing accelerometer data to match two phones being bumped together,see bu.mp/company/faq), or local communication inside a Wi-Fi network.Once a SyncGroup is detected, each User within the group may select howthey wish to consume Targeted Content. Such a selection may bepreselected or chosen manually in each instance as they occur. In groupconsumption situations, Alternate Device Synchronization is sharedacross the mobile devices so that they do not need to all specify theshow being watched, but instead piggyback on the selection of others inthe group.

In group consumption situations, there are multiple metrics tocoordinate. These include filtering and interest preferences as well aspayout preferences. One may choose to loosen one's filteringrequirements (e.g., allow advertising for alcoholic beverages that arenormally suppressed) and to optionally specify that advance warning begiven on one's personal mobile device before such messages are to bedelivered to allow one to either switch to consuming alternate Contenton one's mobile device, or to briefly leave the First Device's room. Onthe payout side, one can choose between optimizing the group's payout asa whole versus optimizing the minimum payout across the whole group.Users may tailor or customize all of these choices, in some embodiments,this is accomplished by a SyncGroup settings page that stores User inputwithin a database to affect filtering and payout according to the User'spreferences. In some embodiments, during viewing, the First Device cansplit in half with SyncGroup members using their mobile device toreceive audio for whichever half of the split screen applies best totheir profile.

During shared Targeted Marketing Content, each participant can view ontheir mobile device how much they will get for consuming the ad (basedupon how well it is optimized for their profile) and decide whether theyare going to pay attention, opt-out and consume a personally targeted adon an Alternate Device, such as their mobile device, or leave the roomto take care of other business.

Additionally, in a preferred embodiment during shared Targeted MarketingContent, each participant may also view on their mobile device how muchpayout they can receive for giving Feedback and they may chooseindividually whether to leave Feedback on their mobile device or receivefurther messages expounding on the Marketing Content that interests themwhile others may continue on with other ads.

The following example usage scenario depicts a User independentlybranching out from group advertising in the Arkiïs™ system. Phillip ishanging out with his college buddies who are all members of Arkiïs™. Anad for Samuel Adams beer is selected that is optimal for the group as awhole, but this is not optimal for Phillip individually because hisProfile shows he does not drink alcohol. Looking down at hisArkiïs™-enabled smartwatch, he is alerted that the ad will only pay himfive cents to view and that it does not match his interests, so hedecides to instead watch his own personally targeted ad on hissmartphone from eTrade to open an IRA while the rest of the groupwatches a humorous beer commercial on the television. Since the Arkiïs™cloud servers know he is in a distracting situation, the servers queryhim in more in-depth on his smartphone to confirm cognition of thepersonal ad he views, which he does and earns one dollar. See FIG. 22and see FIG. 23. In FIG. 22, Alice, Bob, and Charlie are in PhysicalProximity to each other as detected by their phones and join togetherinto a SyncGroup that includes as a First Device, Alice's registeredtelevision which is delivered targeted ads, targeting the SyncGroup as awhole by the Arkiïs™ server. In FIG. 23, Alice, Bob, and Charlie havemobile devices that are connected to the Arkiïs™ servers and associatedwith their individual Profiles, additionally, they have joined togetherinto a SyncGroup and are sharing a display that is registered to belongto Alice as noted in her Profile. The Arkiïs™ server accepts bids todeliver targeted advertising from advertisers whose target audienceparameters match the characteristics of the SyncGroup. The Arkiïs™server selects from the available bids from Florida Orange Juice,Coke-a-Cola, and Pepsi-Cola® to choose the advertising message that bestfits the Profile preferences of the SyncGroup members individually andcollectively and such selected message is delivered to Alice'sregistered Device.

Another embodiment of the Arkiïs™ system in which Users may branch outfrom an advertising group is as follows: Bob and Charlie visit Alice inher apartment to watch the Big Game between Stanford (their alma mater)and UC Berkeley. Alice tunes her television to her personal Roku™Arkiïs™ channel and selects the Big Game. Because each of them is loggedinto Arkiïs™ using their mobile device (e.g., always logged in) and theyare in sustained close Physical Proximity to each other, their Profilesautomatically sync up for shared viewing using their previouslyconfigured SyncGroup. Because Alice is viewing her personal Roku™channel and she has synced up with her friends, her channelautomatically delivers Targeted Marketing Content optimized for thegroup as a whole. During halftime, Alice's dad stops by and he alsoautomatically joins into the SyncGroup. Because his net worth is so muchgreater than these recent college graduates, the targeting switches toweighting his Profile much more heavily and his presence triggers aquick one-minute ad for the new BMW® 7 Series ActiveHybrid 750i earninghim $15. He decides to allocate a small portion of his earnings (thetotal amount of which only he knows) to cover the cost of the rest ofthe game so they can watch the remainder commercial free, and he alsopurchases the premium behind-the-scenes interviews of the Stanfordplayers and coaches to substitute for the normal commercial breaks.Right before his BMW® commercial airs, Bob and Charlie receive alerts ontheir phone that the upcoming advertisement falls below their watchingthreshold since it would only pay them five cents. They both choose totemporarily switch to Alternate Device viewing of personally targetedadvertisements because the BMW® advertisement would pay them so little.Alice does not get such an alert because her payout is fifty cents,since she might influence her father's decision.

Content consumed by a SyncGroup is earned and paid for by all Consumersof the SnycGroup even though they may be sharing a single Device. A Usermay choose to sponsor a SyncGroup to allow for a reduced commercial orcommercial-free experience, or to tilt a Targeted Premium Content feedtoward the perspective they desire. In commercial venues such as asports bar or movie theatre, a sponsor may require a portion of anyrevenue earned by SyncGroup members. In some embodiments, conflictingrequests may be resolved by selecting the highest bidder. A User whowishes to sponsor a SyncGroup for a party or an event may use Arkiïs™ tosend invitations to the event, where an Arkiïs™ User's acceptance of aninvite places them into the SyncGroup for the event automatically orafter being prompted to join the event's SyncGroup.

The following example usage scenario exemplifies group sponsorshipwithin the Arkiïs™ system. Joseph is hosting a party at his house anddecides to budget up to $20 to cover a commercial-free feed of the SuperBowl with behind-the-scenes extras during the commercial breaks. Arkiïs™estimates the viewership at his home by utilizing the number of membersin the SyncGroup of Arkiïs™ Users that come to his party. Additionally,his First Device is coupled with video and audio recording devices tocombine the SyncGroup numbers with viewership estimates based on audioidentification of voices and facial recognition of faces in the vicinityof the television. This allows for a more accurate estimation of viewersto take into account Arkiïs™ Users whose phones are turned off andnon-Arkiïs™ attendees. The final viewership fee ends up being $10.85based upon the duration and number of viewers coming and going duringthe game. Eight of his guests are Arkiïs™ Users and each donated $1towards the cost, leaving Joseph just owing $2.85 for the balance.

The following is an example embodiment of the system, in which Users caninfluence the advertising shown to a group: Sarah and Jessica arevegetarians and go to the movie theatre. Before the movie starts, thereare targeted commercials being shown. Sarah and Jessica have put up abudget of $5 to possibly inhibit any advertising for meat Products thatmay arise. If at any point during the pre-movie show a targetedadvertisement for meat would be the highest bidding commercial, the nexthighest bidding non-meat advocating commercial can be selected insteadas long as the total payout difference between the two is less than the$5 they have allocated. The difference between the two commercials issubtracted from their budgeted amount and redistributed to the Arkiïs™Users present proportionally to their respective payouts for thereplacement targeted advertisement. The ad they bought out is thentreated as if it had played and may not be resubmitted for that session.Their remaining budget is then applied to any different additional meatadvocating commercials that may arise, and if inadequate and notreplenished, subsequent different meat commercials may still air.

The video-on-demand service may also be used to deliver Content topublic places with commercial Arkiïs™ Profiles. For example, a sportsbar or movie theatre can create a Profile that represents their averageaudience demographics. The DVR can employ video and audio monitoring togauge the audience size and reaction. The audience size may bedetermined through face recognition, Jacobs' Method, or other methods.Based on the audience size, the owner is paid for commercials. In apreferred embodiment, Arkiïs™ Users at the establishment may registertheir presence, and may confirm their location though means such as GPS,Wi-Fi triangulation, IPS (indoor positioning systems), cell-towertriangulation, and the like, to receive credit for ads and to help buildthe demographics model of the establishment. Many establishments havemultiple screens so Arkiïs™ Users can have their Profiles coupled withthe specific screens in their proximity and thus influence the TargetedMarketing Content being delivered to their locale within the bar. Theowner of an establishment may specify in their Arkiïs™ settings whetherthey prefer to maximize profit from advertisements by playing TargetedMarketing Content which is heavily influenced by the crowd of Arkiïs™Users present at any given time, or gain less in profit fromadvertisements but have more influence on the advertisements that areplaying.

The following is an example usage scenario of the disclosed system: AMCtheatres rolls out Arkiïs™ for their pre-movie Content and offers freemovie tickets for a subsequent show for viewers that choose to sign upfor the first time to the Arkiïs™ network. Arkiïs™ Users check-in withtheir phones at the screen they are viewing and are credited forcommercials they view in the theatre. The pre-movie Content presentedvaries dynamically based upon each movie's projected audiencedemographics and varies as Arkiïs™ theatergoers arrive and register inthe theatre.

The following is an exemplary usage scenario of the disclosed system.Regal Cinemas offers a special Arkiïs™ promotion (possibly spearheadedby a Champion) for their 4 pm showing of The Hobbit, if the show is soldto at least 25% capacity and at least 80% of attendees are Arkiïs™ Userswith confirmed attendance (by either bringing their mobile device toconfirm their attendance or buying their ticket using an Arkiïs™ enabledpayment system method to document their purchase or submitting theirticket stub) then all such confirmed Arkiïs™ attendees will receive a $2rebate on their movie ticket price.

When Arkiïs™ Users are synchronized together into a SyncGroup,advertisers may compete with each other to deliver Targeted MarketingContent to the group as a whole. In some embodiments, advertisers mayplace bids that include an attribution of the bid across each of theindividual SyncGroup members. A bid may include sub-bids for each propersubset of the SyncGroup and thus may place a premium on some form ofgroup participation (e.g., the whole group or a majority of the group,or some key influencers of the group). The SyncGroup members may chooseto redistribute the payout attribution among themselves differently thanit was assigned by the bid. For example, one group member that wouldearn much more than the others might agree to share a portion of theirproceeds with the other group members in order to encourageparticipation and a shared group consumption experience.

The SyncGroup members may utilize their individual Profile Contentfiltering preferences to construct the SyncGroup's Content filteringpreferences. There are a variety of ways their individual preferencesmay be combined, depending on the embodiment. At one end of thespectrum, they may choose to filter Content to that which satisfies allSyncGroup members' individual filtering criteria. At the other end, theymay choose to filter Content to that which satisfies any member'sindividual filtering criteria. In other embodiments they may also picksomewhere in between these two ends of the spectrum, such as FilteringContent to that which satisfies a majority of SyncGroup members'individual criteria. In further embodiments, SyncGroup members may alsopick and choose how to filter Content, within this spectrum, alongdifferent Content filtering dimensions (e.g., humor criteria may bebased on satisfying the majority, whereas moral criteria may requiresatisfying everyone, and interest criteria may only require satisfyingone member). The selection of SyncGroup Content filtering choices may betailored though the SyncGroup's Profile page accessed from a mobilephone, tablet, computer, DVR, etc. and may require mutual consent asdiscussed in group consumption (See Section 9—Sharing TargetedAdvertising between Users).

As shown in FIG. 24, Arkiïs™ Users that purchase (2405) Products (2400)of a company can register/request (2420) the Marketer (2415) to beProduct Champions (2410) of a company or its Products. A Marketer (2415)may configure their Business Profile to indicate their desire to solicitregistration (2420) of Champions (2410) for the company or its Productsso that prospective Champions may discover them and submit applicationsfor possible approval by the company. In a preferred embodiment,prospective Champions (2410) may discover businesses potentiallymatching their preferences by querying the Arkiïs™ databases forcompanies and Products that are open to Champions and that align withtheir Profile (2440) interests. Such results may be ranked by how wellthe prospective match aligns with the User's Profile. Depending on theembodiment, algorithms to rank how well the prospective match alignswith the User's Profile may take into account the percentage of theUser's Profile contents which match with the company's Profile, thepercentage of the company's Profile which does not match or conflictswith the User's Profile, statistical inferences based on similar Users,etc.

Champions agree to pitch a company or Product based upon their ownpersonal experience. Product Champions may compare different Products,or criticize a competitor's Products. Champions (2410) may createpitches (2425) in the form of testimonial video messages that may beintegrated into Marketer (2415) Content messages when delivered to aconsuming (2430) group that may include the Champion (2410). One exampleof this is the Champion recording a testimonial against a green-screenbackdrop to allow the advertiser to easily place Content behind theChampion to enhance their presentation.

In some embodiments, when a Consumer (2430) purchases (2405) a Product(2400) and they previously consumed a pitch (2425) for that Product(2400) the purchase (2405) is included in the registration (2420) sothat Marketer (2415) may take action on that information. Such actionmay include providing compensation to the Champion (2410) according tothe details of the registration (2420). The Marketer (2415) may alsoadjust the registration (2420) to account for which pitch (2425)messages are more or less effective and thus more or less likely to beoffered to the Consumer (2430).

In some embodiments, Marketers (2415) may receive Champion pitch (2425)video submission Registration (2420) and select which messages theyapprove for inclusion in their advertising campaigns as well as possiblygrade them to adjust the Champion's (2410) payout rate throughregistration (2420). This approval/selection process may be donemanually by the company, through an external agency or automaticallythrough, for example, voice recognition and/or lip-reading analyzing theChampion's tone and keywords within the video submission depending onthe embodiment. Consumers (2430) may filter their exposure to Champions(2410) in one or more topic areas by requiring in their Profile (2440)that Champions (2410) have a high integrity rating and/or have used theProduct (2400) for at least some minimum time frame. A Champion maysubstantiate their claim to having used a Product by many means such asthe attestation of another User, scanning a QR code included inside theProduct's packaging, supplying a confirmation code included inside aproduct's packaging, linking their Profile to a credit card used topurchase the Product, linking their Profile to a store account used topurchase the Product, providing a receipt of their purchase, providing avideo of themselves using the Product, etc.

Other types of Champion messages include live performances thatintegrate the marketing message being promoted by the Champion. This cantake many forms such as: standup comedy routine, magic show, jugglingact, or simply a straightforward extemporaneous message. Hybridperformances are also possible whereby a live Champion combines theirperformance with on-screen prerecorded Content. In some embodiments,Arkiïs™ Consumers (2430) that are consuming a Champion's performancepitch (2425) may offer their services to document the live performanceby noting in their Profile (2440) that they are willing to be avideographer or audiographer. The Arkiïs™ system may allow the Marketer(2415) to designate via Registration (2420) and pay a willing recorderto document these live messages so that they may be reused and analyzedby those not present. Such documentation may also allow for feedback(2435) confirmation of the Champion's message and facilitate payment fortheir services via Registration (2420). In some embodiments, a Champion(2410) may register (2420) a description of their pitch (2425)performance in the Arkiïs™ system databases that may include show times,criteria required for spontaneous exhibitions, performancedescriptions/genre/classifications, etc. in order to facilitate the easylocation of Champion messages and performances by other Consumers.Consumers may annotate the database description in Registration (2420)with the addition of Feedback (2435) in the form of reviews, ratings,video/audio recordings, confirmation of performance information, etc.Mobile device applications may facilitate the addition of information bydetecting or confirming a User's consumption of a performance andfacilitating uploading of recordings, reviews, ratings, etc.

An example usage scenario describing a User who wishes to Champion aProduct or service through the Arkiïs™ system is as follows: Robert canjuggle lit torches and has integrated his performance with anadvertising message for Geico® auto insurance. He has been invitedthrough his Arkiïs™ Profile to a swimming party next Saturday eveningwith many friends that know him. He decides to publish a Market Requestto Champion Geico® auto insurance at the party to see if there issufficient interest. There are twenty guests invited to the party usingthe Arkiïs™ system. These guests receive notice of the Market Requestand may see Robert's Feedback and reviews of prior performances of hisGeico® Champion message. These guests may then decide whether they wishto support the Market Request. Twelve of the guests indicate theirsupport with one objecting and the rest abstaining. This support levelbeing sufficient, the Market Request proceeds to actualization andRobert prepares for his performance on Saturday and schedules it for 8pm. On Saturday evening, there are 24 Arkiïs™ Users present at the partywhen the appointed time arrives. Karen has registered with Geico® torecord the performance and submit it to Geico® for their review inreturn for $5. Robert receives $20 for his ten-minute performance. Theguests that know Robert well receive on average $2 for watching whilethose that do not know him well receive on average $1. Robert's friendJustin, who is in the process of buying his first car, is particularlywell-targeted and receives $4.

A Champion (2410) may give permission in their Profile (2440) to createnew pitches (2425) such as in the form of virtual ads (based on samplesof their likeness and voice) or reuse existing Champion ads, after theirdeath with the proceeds being paid to their estate. In such embodiments,Arkiïs™ provides a system of synchronizing the now-deceased Championwith Products that would have fit with their aspirations and values asdetermined by independent third parties to ensure integrity. Theforegoing embodiment may entail statistical analysis of a Champion'sProfile to judge a product's match level being sufficient to be a match.Such analysis may include matching the deceased Profile to find similarProfiles who are known to acknowledge or disavow a Product affinity forthe purpose of predicting whether the deceased Champion would have anaffinity for the Product. The aforementioned matching may be carried outby a trained neural network, or any other means employed by matchingschemes such as prediction algorithms similar to Netflix® moviesuggestions. The Champion's Profile may have been configured duringtheir life to require review and approval of prospective matchingProducts after their death by their family, agent, estate, and/or otherapproved entity they trusted. In other embodiments, similar approvalsystem may apply to living celebrity figures that may not want to spendthe time to review and approve all the ways their likeness can be reusedto create new virtual advertisements, but are willing to allow theirlikeness to be reused provided the Product meets their values andconstraints.

When bidding, a Marketer (2415) may place a premium on deliveringmessages to a SyncGroup that includes one of the company's registered(2420) Champions (2410). The Champion's position is divulged to thegroup to ensure transparency and integrity. The SyncGroup may besurveyed to see if members are willing to listen to someone from theirgroup that is a Champion for a particular Product and even pay the othergroup members for answering yes or no and giving their reasons forsaying so. Their decision as to whether to listen can be aided byArkiïs™ presenting the reputation details of the Champion (2410) basedupon Feedback (2435) they have received within the Arkiïs™ registration(2420) system. In some embodiments, the Marketer (2415) can decide,based upon survey results, whether to engage the Champion (2410),perhaps requiring total consensus or a supermajority before so deciding.After consuming the Champion's (2410) pitch (2425) message, theseConsumers (2430) may be surveyed for Feedback (2435) to rate theeffectiveness of the Champion's (2410) pitch (2425). This Feedback(2435) rating allows Marketers (2415) to choose Champions (2410) whomeet their requirements and/or select Champions (2410) who have beenrated highly in Feedback (2435) by similar audiences in the past. Italso aids future potential Consumers (2430) in deciding whether toconsume the Champion's (2410) pitch (2425) message and to see whetherothers with similar interests provided Feedback (2435) indicating theyliked it. For example, Consumer (2430) may see a predicted Feedback(2435) rating of how Consumer (2430) will likely Feedback (2435) whenrating the pitch (2435) Content. This may be based upon Content ratingsyou have already supplied that link you to like-minded people who havealready consumed the pitch (2425) Content (e.g., like the algorithmsNetflix utilizes to rate movies in order to predict what you will like).

The following example usage scenario describes one embodiment of thesystem in which a User becomes a Champion for a Product. Dexter is along-standing customer of CutCo® kitchen knives. He is very impressedwith how sharp the knives are and likes the fact that they are made inthe USA, and has therefore decided to accept an email invitation hereceived to register himself as an Arkiïs™ Champion for these knives. Heis entertaining another friend at his house and they decide to watch ana la carte HBO movie together. To pay for the movie, they agree to watcha one-minute commercial for CutCo® knives, knowing that Dexter is aChampion for the company. The message ends with reference to the factthat Dexter can demonstrate the knives and talk about his own use ofthem and offers a 20% discount for any knives purchased that evening.Dexter selects one from the kitchen after the message is delivered andbriefly goes over why he is so happy with them (e.g., their ability tocut human flesh so effortlessly). His friend tries to leave early.

In some embodiments, Users may detect the physical presence of highlyrated Champions (through GPS, mobile networks, Wi-Fi triangulation, andthe like) and publish a Market Request for the Champion to perform forthose present. A User may alert all similar Users within the vicinitywhose Profile preferences allow such communication, to support theinitial Champion Market Request. This data may be transmitted to theChampion so they can gauge/determine how many Consumers would come tothe performance. Champions may decline such requests or offer conditionsunder which they would be willing to perform. For example, the Championmay require each participant's payout for the Targeted Content beallocated to themselves. If a sufficient number of those present agreeto the Market Request terms agreed to by the Champion, then the Championcan perform their act. In other embodiments, a performer may also usethis method to advertise their act and collect revenues for theiraccepted on-demand performances.

Goods & Services Providers (e.g., Coca-Cola®) may agree to compensateChampions for creating Content that includes placement of their Products(either actual placement or virtual via agreed upon digital substitutionfor revised product placement). To achieve this purpose, in someembodiments Arkiïs™ may provide software that automatically detects thepresence and/or dissemination of Provider goods and services for thepurpose of auditing, detecting, and/or measuring such placement andrewarding the Champion. Automatic computer detection of a product'spresence may be performed analogously to facial recognition inphotographs but adjusted for object detection. Processing to transcribethe audio into text may be searched by computerized means for mention ofa Product. Positive matches may be subject to manual human review forconfirmation and to ensure usage is not sarcastic or negative in nature.Such confirmation process may be facilitated by the Arkiïs™ system andresults stored in the system databases for subsequent reference. Inadditional embodiments, the Champion or other Users may notify aProvider of such placement.

In a preferred embodiment, if a Product is being simultaneously consumedwhile it is being advertised, a User may earn a bonus payout offered byan advertiser. Product packages may have a QR code (matrix barcode) toidentify the Product being consumed and an Arkiïs™ offer. Near the timethat a coordinated message is being consumed, the User can scan the QRcode to demonstrate that they are simultaneously consuming the Productbeing sold while the marketing message is being delivered and earn thebonus payout.

In the case that Product samples are being distributed and Championed inan environment (e.g., a theatre) where other Targeted Content iscompeting for User attention, the Arkiïs™ system discounts for thedistraction from receiving Product samples in the payout formula of theTargeted Content that is competing for attention in some embodiments.Such discounting may be agreed upon by advertisers with Arkiïs™ andincluded in their agreed upon payout formula and automatically applywhenever the foregoing competing messages are presented such that theirdelivery overlaps temporally with delivery of the other TargetedContent. In the case that the Targeted Content is aligned with theProduct sample, the system may increase the payout due to the synergy ofthe messages as agreed upon by advertisers and included in their agreedupon payout formula in some embodiments.

The consumption coupled message delivery may be organized around aSyncGroup that may have as its leader the Champion that is facilitatingthe delivery.

The following scenario is an example of one of the embodiments of theSystem, in which a User is able to utilize SyncGroup functionality forconsumption coupled message delivery. Henry indicates in his Profilethat he is hosting a Monday night football party next week for a groupof five of his male friends and is presented with a shopping offer onhis phone while at the grocery store to buy a case of a new Budweiserdark ale, a jumbo sized new Lime Chili Doritos chips, and a case ofCoca-Cola® to serve at his party since during the show there will betargeted commercials presented to the group for these three Products. Inreturn for serving the Product and providing Feedback on the Product andthe commercial messages, Henry will be credited back with half the saleprice and each participant will be credited with coupons for half off afuture purchase of these Products. Right before the party begins, Henryscans the QR code with his phone for each of these Products with theArkiïs™ application to substantiate their being served at the party.After viewing the Targeted Marketing Content for these Products andproviding Feedback, he receives a credit for half of his prior purchase.His friends check-in to the party with their Arkiïs™ application andafter the commercial message is supplied and they have provided theirFeedback, depending upon their responses they receive coupons to buythese or other Products at half off the normal price.

The following is an example embodiment of the system: Michiko lovesSkittles and has spontaneously decided to Champion Skittles today bypassing out free samples at the mall starting at 10 am. AnotherChampion, Lucy, had previously signed up to do this starting at 9:30 am,but because Lucy did not arrive as scheduled, her slot is instead givento Michiko, who creates a SyncGroup where she is the leader. She usesher smartphone to receive directions around the mall to locateopen-minded targeted recipients. Possible recipients may see detailsabout the samples Michiko is offering together with information aboutMichiko so they can decide how credible she is and how well herinterests align to their own and may then choose to join her SyncGroupand make themselves visible to Michiko on her smartphone so she canlocate them. Once they have opted into the offer and joined theSyncGroup, they can also see Michiko's location and may choose to locateher, the group leader. When they meet up, they may scan the Skittles QRcode or bump their phones together (Bump Technologies validation, asIncorporated by Reference) after locating Michiko so that she will bepaid for her work. While receiving their free samples, Michiko extollsthe virtues of Skittles and tells the story of how she became such a bigfan. Because Michiko is at the mall while she is promoting as aChampion, she shares 5% of her earnings with the mall. However, as lunchtime approaches at 11:30 Michiko goes home because the mall's agreementwith her states that Michiko must suspend giving out free samples duringlunch from 11:30 am to 1:30 pm so as not to compete with the food court.

A Champion may be required to have used a Product before becoming aChampion, and generally is sponsored by a Provider to create newmaterial—whether a video advertisement, a pitch, or a liveperformance—which supports the Provider's Product. However, there areother methods of promoting a Provider's Products or advertisements thatdo not require company support or approval. The informal Champions whopromote a Provider's Products or advertisements may be referred to asInfluencers.

One type of Influencer is a User who likes a particular ad (e.g.,because they find it hilarious) and saves it to their Profile so thatthey can later replay it for their friends in a group sharing event. Inone embodiment, the Influencer may be able to see aspects of theirfriends' Profiles (based on their friends' Profile information sharingsettings) in order to determine whether any of their friends havepreviously purchased similar Products, or alternatively, to see a gradedlist of how well the Product matches the interests of each of theirfriends. As a reward for promoting the commercial itself (not itsmessage) the Influencer may get paid for each friend that they share itwith in some embodiments. The sharing may be done one-on-one in PhysicalProximity, or virtually. In some cases, the ad may be shared togetherwith some Premium Content to help defray the cost of the PremiumContent. The recipient of a shared commercial may configure theirProfile to rank the foregoing shared ads more highly when choosingadvertisements for consumption than they would be ranked without theChampion's advocacy of the shared ads. The foregoing ranking adjustmentmay vary depending upon the identity of the Influencer, the integrityrating of the Influencer, and/or the Influencer's relationship with therecipient.

Another type of Influencer is one where a User or group of Users bandstogether to attract more Users to purchase a Product with the goal ofreaching a reward threshold when a sufficient number of Users havejoined the group and purchased. For example, the group may get a 10%rebate on their purchase if they are able to link up ten purchasers in a24-hour period to create a spontaneous cooperative to buy Products.

Another form of Champion is one where a Champion agrees to include RFIDtags on Products or on their person for things they are promoting whenthey are being presently worn or used. Such tags allow for automaticidentification of Products (e.g. clothing, mobile devices, shoes,watches, sports equipment, glasses, perfume, foods, drinks, etc.) suchthat other Users in Physical Proximity to the Champion can detect theRFID tags with their mobile device and retrieve information about suchProducts on their mobile device. For example, a Champion may include intheir wardrobe clothing that they are promoting and when other Users seethem and like what they are wearing, they are able to easily retrieveinformation about what they are wearing. If a User likes the shirt aChampion is wearing and such shirt includes an RFID tag because they arechampioning it, a User can easily bring up details about the shirt ifthey like it and possibly order their own. Alternatively, when adorninga perfume or consuming food or drink, a Champion may place or activatean identifying RFID tag on their person. In the case of VirtualProximity, a Champion's own mobile device in Physical Proximity maydetect the RFID tags on the champion's own body and communicate suchtags to other Users in Virtual Proximity. Alternatively, a Champion mayjust publish in their Profile the Products they are presently using fordetection by other interested Users analogously to RFID tags.

10. Providing Targeted and/or Premium Content

In some preferred embodiments, cooperating broadcasters may provideArkiïs™ with an alternate live broadcast feed to continue live coveragewhile their generic broadcast stream goes to commercial breaks. Thebroadcasters may be paid by the Consumer through Arkiïs™ for this livefeed at a rate commensurate with what they receive from the commercialmessages being supplanted by their continued live feed. For example, inlive sporting events, added in-depth replays, interviews, and commentarymay be provided, or behind-the-scenes locker room discussions andstrategy sessions may be exposed. As this use of continuous Contentfeeds/programming matures, alternate feeds can evolve where a User'sArkiïs™ Profile preferences can automatically select the feed that bestmatches their interests. For example, if you are a San Francisco 49ersfan, the Content can be more focused towards that team, oralternatively, if you are interested in a particular position, such asthe quarterback, the feeds can be selected to emphasize that preference.In a public situation such as a bar, an Arkus™ User can pay to sponsorPremium Content ad-free, much like how one used to put money into ajukebox to hear a song, but everyone in the room got to listen.

Arkiïs™ may allow live sports events to change how they are played sothat they no longer have arbitrary commercial breaks and hold up gameplay to wait for the commercials to end before resuming play. Instead,the natural breaks that occur in the game between plays and duringtime-outs become sufficient to consume commercials if desired and payfor the cost of receiving the Premium Content.

In some embodiments, during commercial break of a live program (e.g. afootball game), other unrelated or independent premium channel Content(not necessarily live) can be temporarily tuned in and upon the originallive Content's return from commercial break, the Device or individuallycustomized feed can automatically return to the Primary Content channelbeing viewed or split the screen and show two or more feeds.

The commercial break Premium Content may even be expanded into thetraditional broadcast Premium Content. For example, a broadcast networkmay produce alternate feeds that target specific demographics in returnfor a premium from the Consumer. For sports programming, a broadcastercan produce two or more additional feeds beyond their traditionalgeneric broadcast that target the fans of the two teams competing. Theteam-targeted feeds can include announcers with an affinity towards theteam whose fans are being targeted; further, the choice of cameras andinstant replay perspectives during the game can be adjusted to serve thedesires of the fans of a particular team. Additional feeds can also becreated around other target audience metrics, for example, when watchingfootball, one demographic may prefer to only view the game with a focuson the quarterback.

In a preferred embodiment, a User (e.g. Arkiïs™ User 43-600) mayassociate their Fantasy Football Team (or other Fantasy Sports Team)within a league with their Profile in order to receive (such as byViewing Engine 43-700) an anthology of the plays (or portion(s) thereof)such as depicted in FIGS. 43C, 43D, and 43E and for which Video Clips43-1000 are generated in which one or more of their Fantasy FootballTeam members featured prominently during the last few seconds, minutes,hours or days. Per User preferences, such anthologies may not feature awhole play, but instead focus on one or more sub-portions, such as theportions in which their team member scores points in the FantasyFootball competition. This association can be done by linking a User'sArkiïs™ Profile to a Fantasy Football application (e.g. ESPN FantasyFootball, Yahoo Fantasy Football) on a mobile phone or other computingdevice or in the cloud, wherein such application is integrated by itspublisher through published APIs to communicate and coordinate with theArkiïs™ servers. In an alternate embodiment, a User's Arkiïs™ Profilemay import the lineup and other details of their Fantasy Football Teamsuch as their league and rules, such as by User providing logincredentials to a Fantasy Football application in their Profile to allowtheir Fantasy Football team members and other league information to beimported by the Arkiïs™ servers logging into the application andgathering any necessary information. Such league information may also beavailable in the SyncGroup Profile of SyncGroup 43-650 for which Arkiïs™User 43-600 is a member. Such importation may be regularly synchronizedby the Arkiïs™ servers 43-500 or the Fantasy Football application may beintegrated with the Arkiïs™ system by the use of published APIs and linka User's information with Arkiïs™ and proactively send updates andchanges to a User's team as represented in their Profile in the Arkiïs™servers as they are affected (e.g. such as by a trade of a player in aleague from one User or Contestant to another). Users may also associatetheir Fantasy Football tool/auxiliary accounts such as theirScoutPRO.com® account (or other similar service) with their Profile sothat customized statistics, analysis, and predictions may beincorporated into their Fantasy Football Arkiïs™ replays (e.g. during areplay involving the User's quarterback, their ScoutPRO.com® account maybe queried to display additional statistical information and predictionsfor their quarterback such as Annotation Component 43-574).

In some embodiments, the Content Providers and/or computer automatedrecognition 43-850 may tag play Content (such as feeds 43-400, 43-410, .. . , 43-450) with identifiers for the players who figure prominently ineach play (e.g. players that are attributed with a Fantasy Footballscoring action in the play or whose actions in the play are tagged asexciting such as determined by measuring crowd noise reaction (e.g. viacrowd feed in FIG. 43I) via their decibel level and/or its rate ofchange (i.e. its derivative)). Alternatively, some or all tagging ofplay Content may be automated or aided, such as by Computer AutomatedRecognition for Adding Metadata Tagging 43-850. Such recognition mayentail analyzing announcer commentary and analysis for key words,phrases, or tonal quality changes (e.g. “incredible”, “that's amazing”,“unbelievable”, volume spike, pitch changes, etc.) and tagging contentpreceding such exclamations as being exciting and thus more likely ofinterest to Users. Users consuming content may likewise have theirviewing room listened to via microphone for likewise analysis, searchingfor key words, phrases, or tonal quality changes and tagging contentpreceding such exclamations as being exciting and thus more likely ofinterest to other Users. In other embodiments, Users may tag plays theyare consuming (e.g. such as by using record metadata tagging 43-800) tocrowdsource the building of aspects of the database 43-510. Other Usersthat benefit from the tagging produced may compensate the Userscontributing such tagging for their efforts by allocating a portion ofthe Content fee to those Users (e.g. such as by use of billing engine43-900). Each player tag may have entry and exit time points forportions within the play Content wherein the player's action is mostprominent, important and/or transpires. The tags may be graded in termsof the magnitude of their role in a play (either positively ornegatively). Additionally, the Content may be tagged to identify theentry and exit time points for individual portion(s) of plays 43-560wherein individual players may come into and out of key action and/orperform a Fantasy Football scoring action. The plays or sub-portionspertaining to a particular player may be graded (such as by Users,commentators, and/or computer heuristic analysis) in terms of dramaticimpact as well as overall scoring potential and actual impact. Gradesmay be crowdsourced, so that the dramatic impact, scoring potential andactual impact may be denoted as the average grade for each categorypossibly weighted for User 43-600 so that the average favors the ratingsof like-minded individuals. In some embodiments, Users may also beallowed to leave comments on each play (or portion thereof), possiblyassociated with particular time points or ranges within a play, whichmay be subject to filtering, review, and deletion for inappropriateContent, such as by participant added metadata tagging 43-800 providedin create feedback 43-3020. In some preferred embodiments, cooperatingbroadcasters may provide Arkiïs™ with an alternate live broadcast feedto continue live coverage while their generic broadcast stream goes tocommercial breaks. By providing all these grades and tags upon the arrayof all plays (or portion(s) thereof) for the actual games played in aleague and thus building up a rich database of Content 43-510, Arkiïs™can easily allow (such as by shown in FIG. 43B) a User's Profile tospecify feed queries of exactly what they value and wish to see in playsof their Fantasy Football Team members and thus build (such as byViewing Engine 43-700) custom alternate Premium Content (such as withinteractive video stream 43-740, possibly audio only or text based) thata User may consume in whatever fashion they desire, such as duringcommercial break while they are consuming a game, as a priorityinterruption (per Profile preferences) during regular game play, or as astandalone custom show without interruption. In some embodiments, “live”television/radio broadcasts are actually delayed slightly but a JSONfeed (or other alternate feed 43-460) may be in realtime, thus allowingthe replay of an interesting play (or portion thereof) to be receivedcontemporaneously with its slightly delayed “live” broadcast.

In alternative embodiments, a User correspondingly consumes FantasyFootball replay Content without the traditional means of a video replaystream on a device such as a television. Such means may be as by audioonly (e.g. radio-like) or web-based HTML text, with stills and videolinks. In such embodiments, feeds 43-400, 43-410, . . . , 43-450 andstream 43-470 may correspond to audio-only feeds/streams or textualfeeds/streams providing written descriptions of plays, possiblyincluding HTML and/or other web page instructions. For example, whiledriving in a vehicle, a User may request audio highlights for theirFantasy Football Team, whereby the highlights are presented in narrativeform such as that found in traditional radio broadcast coverage of asports event. Such narrative may be annotated with additional Userspecific custom content such as computer voice generated reading ofoverlaid graphical annotation of statistical information such as theFantasy Football scoring value of the play (or portion thereof) beingpresented. As another example, a User can view a custom generated webpage that lists their Fantasy Sport team's roster and recent scoringevents for their team players (i.e. team members), with textualcommentary, play description and links to audio and/or video feeds tohear and/or see the plays (or portion(s) thereof) alternatively providedby more traditional means of a video replay stream, such as on theirtelevision. Such embodiments can employ the mechanisms and methodsdescribed in the foregoing descriptions for video, with the videocontent being supplemented or replaced with audio or web content thatrepresents the plays (or portion(s) thereof) that can be shown orprovided to the User in video form.

A User may specify which Fantasy Football rules they would like theirArkiïs™ Profile to reflect. Arkiïs™ may allow the User to select rulesfor a league from a drop-down list of league types each with presetrules, for example head-to-head leagues (where a new team is pickedevery week and matched against one other team), “keeper” leagues (whererules dictate the number of players that can be kept from year to year,and there is a penalty for keeping a player”), etc. Checkboxes may beutilized where standard rules that are compatible with each other can bepicked in an a-la-carte manner. In the case of rule variants that aremutually exclusive, radio buttons may be employed. Users may submit newsets of rules for approval to Arkiïs™. In some embodiments, FantasyFootball league SyncGroups (such as SyncGroup 43-650) may be createdwhere the group leader (e.g. Arkiïs™ User 43-620) acts as the leaguemanager, and creates league rules for shared benefit of the otherSyncGroup members (e.g. Arkiïs™ Users 43-600, 43-610, etc.). These rulesmay have to be approved by, for example, a majority vote within theSyncGroup. SyncGroups may also be utilized to facilitate trades ofplayers from one User to another. Approval by the SyncGroup leader, amajority vote within the SyncGroup or some other form of group consentmay be required to allow a trade.

In some embodiments, Users may also use Arkiïs™ credits or rewardspoints (such as by Billing Engine 43-900) as a wager, such as on afuture Fantasy Football outcome, and may for example transfer credits orrewards points to another User for that User gaining more FantasyFootball scoring points throughout the Fantasy Football season. However,this feature is subject to state and federal laws and may not beavailable in all states or countries.

A User may wish to evaluate players for trade-consideration and/or fordrafting selection. Just as a User may see plays (or portion(s) thereof)related to their current team members, they may request plays (orportion(s) thereof, such as by Feed Query in FIG. 43B) for a player ofinterest to them, such as one being considered for trade. A User canrequest to view video feeds and corresponding statistics for one or moreplayers of interest and easily be able to review plays (or portion(s)thereof) of players they are interested in. The system may providewhat-if scenarios whereby a User hypothetically substitutes a currentplayer with another not on their team presently and sees the scoringimpact such a trade would have had were it previously enacted. Thewhat-if scenario may provide scoring effect (such as by AnnotationComponent 43-574) as well as play highlights (portions) involving thehypothetical player (such as by one or more Video Clip 43-1000) and thescoring impact those plays would have had.

Further details, features and functions of providing premium content,including specifically for sporting events, are described in FIGS. 43A,43B, 43C, 43D, 43E, 43F, 43G, 43H, 43I, 43J, and the descriptionaccompanying these figures in Section 20—Providing CustomizedEntertainment Content.

11. Providing Feedback on Content, Goods, and Services

When a Marketer buys access to deliver Content to a Consumer, by way ofthe Marketer's criteria matching the Consumer's Profile for the purposeof delivering Content, they may gain the right to report on theirrelationship with the Consumer such as whether the Consumer commits tomaking a purchase from them and their performance on any suchcommitment. In a preferred embodiment, such reporting will retain theanonymity of the Consumer from the Marketer. At the same time, theConsumer may earn the right to report on their relationship with theMarketer such as whether their Products fulfill the promises of anyMarketing Content provided to the Consumer.

Arkiïs™ may combine the information gathered by all the parties tocompute or generate individually custom tailored scores for any pairingof a Consumer and a Marketer, such as shown in FIG. 15 and FIG. 25. Thisscoring takes into account the general Consumer's behavior as well astheir specific behavior towards the one Marketer being explored. TheConsumer's score is actually a set of functions (either calculatedinstantaneously or over a period of time) that predict the likelihoodthat the Consumer will have performed a particular action immediately orby a given time point in the future (timeframe of question from marketer2512). These functions may be stored within the Arkiïs™ system databases2504, calculated (lookup function arguments 2514) for eachConsumer/Marketer (Consumer profile information 2508/Marketerinformation 2510) pairing query and context time, location, social, andadjacent Content 2516, and stored long enough to determine whether ornot an advertisement will be added to a Consumer's queue (Doesprobability justify bidding? 2520, Determine bid based onProfile+probability 2524 and Submit content into queue of consumer forpossible selection 2526 in Content selector 208). Examples such as shownin FIG. 26 include a function to predict the likelihood that theConsumer will buy, or lease, a new car in general, or another morespecific to buying/leasing a new car through that particular Marketer.Other similar functions might suggest their proclivity to buying a newcar or a used car, whether they would likely pay cash or finance,whether they would trade in an old car, etc.

Conversely, the Consumer is given scoring information on the Marketer topredict the likelihood that the Marketer will deliver on its promises ora prediction as to the likelihood that the Consumer will judge theMarketer as meeting their criteria.

In a preferred embodiment, as illustrated in FIG. 27, the database ofinformation is accessed by the Arkiïs™ system through a published API(2710) that allows licensed third-party applications to be plugged intothe platform (2720, 2722, 2724, . . . ) and to provide additional valueor functionality beyond what Arkiïs™ provides. Such plug-ins generallyfunction within the Arkiïs™ system and do not export or expose anyinformation to the outside public network (2750) except under strictsecurity controls and monitoring to ensure privacy. Only the publicfacing Profiles (2730) are accessible through the API. The MasterProfiles (2740) are held under strict security controls to reduce thechance of unauthorized access. These controls may include the use of,for example, private networks (2760) that may employ lasercommunications systems instead of the Internet when moving the MasterProfile data around the world to reduce the chance of unauthorizedsnooping to glean information. The interface which faces the Internetmay only access a single Profile at a time to allow individualmaintenance of a Consumer's own Profile and may require authentication.This helps prevent wholesale intrusions of the whole database.

The User may choose to omit certain information from their Profiles toaid in privacy preservation. For example, blank fields may beautomatically seeded with false demographic information to increase theprivacy of the system, should the Master Profile database be breached.Such erroneous information is omitted when queried through the publishedAPIs and is only present as an added security measure in case the MasterProfile database was directly breached. The Marketers query for a set ofProfiles that meet their criteria; further drilling down for additionaldetails on matching Profiles is subject to tracking and analysis toconfirm the database is not being abused. Confirmed abuse can result ina Marketer (or any User) being restricted or barred from accessing thedatabase (or using other elements of the Arkiïs™ system) or beingrequired to hire and pay for an independent overseer to audit andsupervise all their activities until such time as they are deemedtrustworthy again. Aberrant patterns that are detected includesystematic rotation of query parameters that can be used to eventuallyquery the whole public facing database for prohibited replication of thedatabase outside our system, or the use of false demographic informationintentionally placed within the system to detect abuse. Additionally,once a Marketer has a set of targeted Consumers for which they arequerying for ever more detailed information (drilling down for moreinformation), any set of expansive queries that in aggregate coverslarge portions of a specific Consumer's public facing Profile aresubject to review relative to their legitimate need for the information,or if not, then for flagging for manual review as possible abuse. In apreferred embodiment, User may indicate in their Profile that they wishto be omitted from any queries where the set of matching Profiles issmall or below a certain threshold to reduce the chance that theiridentity might be surmised by constructing a query to locate a knownperson's potentially anonymous public Profile.

As shown in FIG. 15, Consumers (1560) of Content (1520) may be asked byContent Producers (1510) to supply Feedback (1580) on Targeted Contentthey consume, receiving a notification (e.g. visual, audio, tactile) onan Arkiïs™ enabled Device that their Feedback is wanted. This applies toboth Premium Content and Marketing Content. In the case of MarketingContent, the Feedback may be used to confirm that the Consumer actuallyconsumed the Content for which they may be getting paid, additionally,Feedback may be used to gauge a person's interest in a Product afterseeing a commercial message and to measure their receptivity to amessage to allow a Content Producer to tune their delivery. In the caseof Premium Content, the Feedback may be used to measure how satisfiedthe Consumer is with the Content and their likelihood to recommend itand consume follow-up Content. The immediacy of Feedback allows anadvertiser to quickly hone their marketing message with a small set ofinitial Consumers to make it more effective with a larger set ofsubsequent Consumers.

Feedback which is used to gauge whether a Consumer actually consumed theContent may include open-ended or multiple choice questions regardingadvertisement details only recognizable to a User who actually consumedthe ad, for example: “Were the characters sitting in a) the office, b) apark, c) a restaurant, d) a house?” Feedback which is used to gauge aUser's interest in a Product may be supplied by the advertiser and mayinclude one or more of: open-ended questions, multiple choice questions,rating scales, rank order scaling questions, semantic differentialscales, constant sum questions, and/or the Likert response scale, etc.Feedback questions which are used to gauge a User's interest in aProduct may be presented to the User consecutively, or a survey may besplit into portions which are then presented to the User in an orderinfluenced by the time left in a commercial break and the monetary valuethe User will receive for each survey portion.

Feedback may be provided through a User's Alternate Device or enteredthrough an interface presented on their First Device and controlled bytheir Alternate Device (e.g., smartphone), remote control, or othercustom hand-held hardware device. By turning the commercial message intoa bidirectional communication, the User becomes more engaged with themessage, more intelligent and thoughtful, and more likely to respondfavorably to a message that is providing real value to the User. Thisshould raise the whole playing field of commercial messages and resultin smarter buying populations and more interesting and usefulcommercials while eliminating, through competition, those messages thatare not helpful. See FIG. 28. In FIG. 28, a User has provided someFeedback on a zero to five sliding scale in three parts, an overallrating of the Content, a rating with respect to how funny the Contentis, and a rating of how well the Content matched the User's interests.(Ratings may be provided along many possible dimensions beyond thoselisted such as the Content's usefulness or relevancy to a User, howexciting it is judged to be, how well was it edited, how well was itproduced, is it in User's genera of interests, etcetera.)

In some embodiments, the Feedback questions may be organized as a treewhere, depending upon the response at each level of the tree, theFeedback questions continue on a chosen branch that accounts for theirprevious responses. Some branches are terminal based upon the Marketer'sdetermination that a sale is unlikely, which may be based upon pastexperience with similar answers from similar Consumer Profiles and theresulting sales outcomes. In the case of a commercial message, someresponses may lead to follow-up Targeted Marketing Content to reinforcethe Marketer's message and allay discovered concerns of the Consumer andto ultimately result in a sale. The extent to which a User is willing toanswer Feedback questions affects their payout; this also applies toFeedback on Premium Content. Feedback may result in payout that isproportional to the amount of Feedback given.

Feedback may also be provided during Content delivery. For example, as amessage is being delivered, the User may provide continuous/ongoingFeedback using their smartphone or other Alternate Device. A User mayprovide Feedback in whatever dimensions the Content Producer desires.For example, a User can give Feedback as to how funny or compelling amessage is as it unfolds. Additionally, sensor input data may beutilized to automate the gathering of Feedback. For example, amicrophone on a smartphone may be used to detect and measure laughterlevels and correlate them with Content delivery time points.Alternatively, talking during Content may be measured to detect Userengagement (talking about the Content, determined by voice recognitionand/or lip-reading of keywords) and disengagement (talking aboutsomething else). The accelerometer on a smartphone may be utilized todetect when a User gets up out of a chair and how quickly they did so tomeasure audience excitement such as upon a key scoring event in a sportsgame.

Other aspects of Feedback may be collected if the Consumer actuallyfollows through and purchases the Product being advertised. Afterpurchase, the User may choose to review the original message and judgeit relative to the actual Product received. In a preferred embodiment,the Feedback continues to be collected over the lifespan of theproduct's effectiveness. Consumers that follow through also haveincreased integrity ratings that better their odds of receiving betterpayouts from Marketers.

In return for access to the system, Marketers agree to terms of servicethat may prohibit them from engaging in activity that can be used toidentify individuals, retaining any information on Consumers, orattempting to cross-reference information within the system withinformation aggregated by outside marketing data collectors. In apreferred embodiment, if a Marketer is found to violate any of theseprovisions, their actions will be publicized as part of their Profileand they will be excluded from marketing to those Consumers whosefilters preclude advertisers who are found to violate the terms.

Monitoring of room audio through the microphone of a device connected tothe Arkiïs™ system may allow audience reaction to be measured bycorrelating it with the presented Content to gauge the value andeffectiveness of Content. In some embodiments, audience reaction mayalso be measured by recording room video and performing facialrecognition to determine at what points attention is directed towardsthe video Device and at what points it is not, to further gauge thevalue and effectiveness of Content. In further embodiments, facialrecognition may also gauge audience emotional state/mood by detectingfacial gestures such as smiling, frowning, and laughter and/or othergesture recognition such as clapping, thumbs-up or thumbs-down, etc.

In group situations, the Profile preferences of a particular User in thegroup may prohibit collecting any data while they are in the vicinity.Alternatively, depending on the embodiment, the audio and video andother data collected may be scrubbed to delete or censor out theirpresence. This may be done using vocal recognition to tie known voiceprints of known User Profiles to specific voices in an audio feed andremoving any unrecognized prints or prints recognized to match a Profilethat controls how their data is collected and has specified they not berecorded. Similarly, individual video frames may be analyzed to performfacial recognition against known faces so that unknown faces orrecognized faces with controls over data collection may be filtered outas required. The Arkiïs™ system may annotate adjacent video frames withthe identity of subjects to track and maintain identity across frameswhere individuals may not be accurately identified, such as when a faceturns away or is partially or wholly obscured in some fashion. The audioprint recognition may be combined with the video to provide greateraccuracy, for example, by combining facial recognition and associatedlip movements (lip-reading) in the video with the voiceprint thatcorresponds to those movements. Other clues, such as clothing beingworn, can be used to help track an individual once their face is notsufficiently viewable in a video feed where their recognized face isassociated with the clothing they are wearing, thus allowing continuedrecognition when their face is not visible but their clothing isvisible. In some embodiments, when multiple audio feeds are present,voiceprints may be assigned three-dimensional locations by triangulatingthe voiceprint across the audio sources. Such location aware prints mayalso be combined with video to further refine identification of anindividual in a video. Just as multiple audio signals may be present, somay multiple video signals be present and combined to provide highfidelity identification of Users and their locations and actions inthree-dimensional space.

Reviewers (a User or SyncGroup of Users providing detailed Feedbackrelated to transactions, Content, goods, services, or others' Feedback)may share in advertising and/or revenues for goods & services that arepurchased in part based upon information in their reviews. In someembodiments, the revenue share they receive may decrease over time; forexample, their share may decrease by 2% for every day that elapses sincetheir review was last referenced by a User up until the point that Useractually makes a purchase of a reviewed item. In other embodiments, therevenue share may be diluted across all the reviews a User considersbefore a purchase. Highly regarded/rated/trusted reviews may garner adisproportionate share of revenues to reflect their greater value. Forexample, a Provider of a Product may allocate 2% of the sales price toReviewers that contribute to the User's decision to buy. In alternateembodiments, the User may reject reviews paid for by the Provider/sellerand instead pay for access to reviews. Users may also self-gauge thevalue they feel they received from a Reviewer. This valuation may becompared to the average of all Users self-gauging a Reviewer. When aUser's self-gauged value is significantly lower than the average yet theUser appears to have followed the recommendation of the Reviewer, theUser's value may be attributed a greater value than they self-gauged.The Reviewer may earn a portion of revenue for purchases based upontheir reviews that are deemed of value. Reviews may also be treated astargeted commercial messages or incorporated into such messages wherethe Goods & Services Provider being reviewed targets a potential buyerby presenting them with an advertisement that includes reference to theReviewer's information. In such cases, the Reviewer may share in therevenues paid to the consumer of the targeted commercial message. Insome embodiments, Reviewers may earn money for downstream purchases, forexample, if Alice provides a review to Bob and Bob purchases based inpart upon Alice's review and Bob now provides a review to Charlie andCharlie purchases based in part upon Bob's review, then Alice earns aportion of Bob's earnings from Charlie's purchase since Bob's originalpurchase resulted in part from Alice's review.

Depending on the embodiment of the disclosed system, there are manydifferent ways a Reviewer may be paid for providing their reviewsincluding:

-   -   Receiving a portion of sales revenue related to viewing their        reviews.    -   Receiving subscriptions from User(s) for unlimited access to        their reviews.    -   Selling timed, block access to all reviews in a particular        domain.    -   Selling pre-paid access to a fixed number subsequently selected        reviews.    -   Selling a-la-carte access to individual reviews that may include        a minimum payment and optional bonus based upon the User's        rating of the review (e.g. a review receives a 3 out of 5 star        rating and is paid $0.07 whereas a 4 star rating by the User        would have earned the Reviewer $0.10.)    -   Receiving a portion of all ad revenue from a User and allocated        across the reviews most informative to the User's buying        decision(s).    -   Receiving a portion of ad revenue from a User in a particular        product domain and allocated across the reviews (including those        of other Reviewers) most informative to the User's buying        decision(s) in that domain. (e.g. the top five reviews divvy up        the User's allocation equally or weighted based upon the ranking        of each review.)    -   Joining together with other Reviewers of a Product and selling        bundled access where the User ranks the bundled reviews by their        value and the sales price is allocated according to the User's        ranking of their review.    -   Selling access by the number of words, diagrams, and pictures        within their review that the User sees combined with a User's        rating of the review's usefulness to compute a payout (analogous        to the newspaper articles by the word payment scheme, e.g. 100%        of the word rate for a top rating).    -   By banding together with other Reviewers to form a review        library and offering access to their collective reviews using        the payment schemes available to individual Reviewers.

Licensing their reviews with cooperatives where Users join and pay foraccess and the member's access fees are allocated by the cooperativeaccording to the Member's collective judgment of the value of thevarious licensed reviews.

For Marketing Content, a User may register to follow Reviewers theytrust in the Arkiïs™ system and require in their Profile that Contentmust be recorded in the Arkiïs™ system to have been evaluated by one oftheir trusted Reviewers or Reviewer groups who report their independentfindings to the Arkiïs™ system about the marketing message, checking forfactual accuracy and/or testing the Product being sold indimensions/aspects important to the User (as indicated in their UserProfile) such as its reliability, recyclability, ease of use, aestheticappeal, green manufacturing, fair trade, fair wages for workers, originof manufacture, etc. In a preferred embodiment, a User's Profile mayinclude entries for each Reviewer a User is following as well as includefiltering preferences such as any requirements Content must satisfybefore it may be presented to a User. A Profile may also record theaspects of a review that are important to a User along with a measure oftheir relative importance. For example, a User may assign relativepercentages to aspects of a review in their Profile, assigning 0% tothose aspects that are not important and increasing percentages to thoseaspects that are increasingly important to them. Aspects may include,both subjective and objective measures, including accuracy of message,efficiency rating of a Product, aesthetic appeal, durability, etc.Reviews may be stored in the Arkiïs™ databases along with aspects ordimensions being judged/assessed by a Reviewer as part of a review. AUser may require their Reviewers to have purchased and used a Product,as registered in the Arkiïs™ system, before they will consider payingfor a review. Such requirements may be included as part of a User'sProfile, and database review entries may include whether a confirmedpurchase by the Reviewer is present and may reference the purchaseproof. A Reviewer may have their friends attest to their using a Producton a regular basis and such attestations may be recorded in theattester's Profile and/or in the attested Reviewer's Profile. In apreferred embodiment, falsely attesting to another's behavior may resultin penalties such as reduced revenues, reduced Arkiïs™ integrity score,and/or temporary exclusion from direct participation in Arkiïs™ orrequired to use a trusted proxy (who is paid a portion of revenues) toaccess Arkiïs™ on their behalf.

This process may be applied to Political Action Committee (PAC) ads anda User may require that only PAC ads that have been fact checked by aspecialized reviewing group they trust may be presented to them. In thisway, a sufficiently large group of Users may influence the politicaldiscourse by only being reachable by candidates and/or PACs that adhereto accepted norms of the group and whose messages are independentlyaudited for accuracy.

Content may include metadata stored in the Arkiïs™ databases toassociate Content with Reviewers, ratings, scores, blurbs, blog entries,etc. A Reviewer may also include metadata stored in the Arkiïs™databases to associate the Reviewer with their reviews of Products,Reviewer name, Reviewer integrity rating score, attestations (includingvisibility e.g., public, only attestor's friends, only Reviewer'sfriends, only friends of attestor or reviewer, only friends and friendsof friends), Reviewer consumption/purchase confirmation of Productincluding date and time and method of independent verification, etc. Anattestor may also include metadata stored in the Arkiïs™ databases toassociate the attestor with their attestations, Reviewers attested,attestor integrity score, name of attestor, visibility of attestations,dates of attestations, etc.

The Content ranking system of Arkiïs™ prioritizes the presentation ofContent according to a Consumer's preferences as stated in theirProfile. Such ranking system has a configurable algorithm that can beconfigured, substituted, or modified by other plug-in algorithms andvariable controls. Such algorithms account for these Consumerpreferences and create a prioritized queue of Content for the Consumerto consume. Such queue is drawn from all Content whose targetingcriteria matches the User's demographics and thus may be presented tothe Consumer if the Consumer's preferences also result in a match asdetermined by the ranking system algorithm. In one embodiment, aConsumer may prefer that Targeted Marketing Content only be rankedaccording to the payout offered by a Marketer. In such a case, all otheraspect variables are weighted with a value of zero and the aspectvariable of payout is weighted with a value of one, resulting in aranking score for each possible Targeted Marketing Content such that thehighest paying Content for a Consumer is ranked first, followed by thesecond highest paying Content, etc. all the way down to the lowestranked Content being the one that offers the lowest payout. In the caseof a tied ranking score, the Targeted Marketing Content that was first(chronologically) offered to a Consumer may be ranked ahead ofsubsequently offered Targeted Marketing Content with matching score. Inanother embodiment, a Consumer may prefer that Targeted MarketingContent be ranked according to trusted reviews providing grades on ascale of 1 to 10 in the areas of humor, carbon-footprint of Product, andworking conditions for manufacture. In such a case, humor may beweighted 20%, carbon-footprint may be weighted 45% and workingconditions 35%, such that the average review rating of all Reviewers aConsumer trusts that have provided a review rating in that category forthat Targeted Marketing Content/Product is multiplied by the Consumer'sweighting in that aspect and summed together with the other aspects togenerate a ranking score for each possible Targeted Marketing Contentsuch that Content may be ranked and presented in order of rank. Suchrankings may be dynamically computed for each point at which a Consumeris ready to receive a new piece of Content to account for changesincluding: new trusted reviews, the changing set of available TargetedMarketing Content that is matched to a Consumer over time, and updatesto a Consumer's preferences.

A Certifier is a special kind of Reviewer, which may be aNon-Governmental Organization (NGO) and which provides IndependentReviewer Certification about Providers and/or Products along specificmetrics. In a preferred embodiment, these certifications are storedwithin the Arkiïs™ system databases and retrieved in response to aUser's Product search or other query. Just like Reviewer revenue, theseCertifiers may share in advertising revenues, and/or may share inrevenues (e.g. advertising and/or purchasing) when goods are purchasedbased in part upon information in their Independent ReviewerCertifications. An Independent Reviewer Certification provides a trustedindependent check on facts put forth by a Provider or on measuredstandards applied across multiple vendors. For example, a User may wishto only buy goods that are more than 50% manufactured in the UnitedStates, and thus may rely upon one or more Certifiers to independentlyfact check any such claims put forth by a Provider. Just as negativereviews are also credited in a decision, so are reviews that denounce aProvider as not meeting the mark.

A Certifier's Profile may include associated metadata stored in theArkiïs™ databases including: trust level, integrity rating score, thekind of Certifier (e.g. NGO, independent person), certificationsprovided including scores and ratings applied to Content and Products,number of Users that trust a Certifier, number of Users that trustCertifier above a threshold (e.g. above 75% trust level), number ofUsers that trust Certifier at a level in the top quartile of allCertifiers they trust (to normalize trust levels across Users), etc.

A Certifier may be paid in many ways through the Arkiïs™ system fortheir certification services, depending on the embodiment. These waysinclude all the ways in which a Reviewer may be paid that are describedabove in Reviewer Revenue. A User may subscribe to a Certifier'scertification information by allocating a specific percentage of all theadvertising revenues they receive for Products certified by thatCertifier. Such a percentage may be under complete control of the Userand adjusted in their Arkiïs™ Profile from time to time, as they desire.A Certifier may designate a minimum percentage share that they requirein order for a User to subscribe to the certification information theyprovide. In a preferred embodiment, when a User chooses to subscribe toa Certifier's certification information, an access token is created forthe User. This access token is comprised of multiple fields, which mayinclude, but are not limited to the following: an identifier associatedwith the current session (i.e. attempt to access Content), a Useridentifier, privileges, restricting group identifiers, etc. Subscribingto a Certifier's certification information may be required by aCertifier in order for any of their certification information to becomevisible to a User, or alternatively, a Certifier may provide sampleselected certification information to all Users while their completecertification information may be reserved for subscribers. Anotherembodiment involves providing summary or overview certificationinformation, such as only the beginning of an Independent ReviewerCertification report and selected certification facts/grades to allUsers and reserving the complete certification report for subscribers.If a Certifier decides to offer limited Independent ReviewerCertification information to Users, a User Profile which is notassociated with an access token for the particular Certifier maytemporarily be assigned a “guest” access token—this may include fieldsidentifying the current session (i.e. attempt to access content),privileges of a non-subscribing viewer, restricting group identifiers torestrict access to paid certification information, etc. If a Certifierdecides to restrict all of its certification information so that onlypaying Users can view said information, the lack of an access tokenassociated with a User may bar the User from viewing all information. Inthese situations, a temporary access token may contain fields whererestricting group identifiers bar all access, or all privileges may bedisabled. For a Certifier wishing to make all of their certificationinformation freely available to the public, the lack of an access tokenmay generate a “guest” token associated with the session which containsfields giving the User full privileges in accessing the Certifier'sContent, or the Content may not require an access token. The presence ofa User identifier in these “guest” access tokens may depend on theUser's privacy settings or the Certifier's Profile settings. A Certifiermay offer à la carte pricing where a User, instead of subscribing, maypurchase specific certification information or a specific certificationreport. Such à la carte pricing may be fixed, suggested, minimum, orvariable based upon User demographics. Alternatively, a User maysubscribe to a specific kind of certification information a Certifierprovides instead of to all the certification information they supply(e.g. a Certifier's certification grade of made in the US orcertification of a manufacturer paying a living wage to workers inChina). The foregoing and following mechanisms describing how aCertifier may be paid, their records maintained, their certificationsare shared, etc. can also be adapted and utilized for paying Reviewersfor reviews.

The Profile of an Certifier may be associated with metadata storedwithin the Arkiïs™ databases, including but not limited to: the categoryof Certifier (e.g. political organization, community group, specialinterest group), the date of the Certifier Profile creation within theArkiïs™ system, the number of certifications created by the Certifier,and statistics about associated Users who trust or subscribe to theCertifier (in a preferred embodiment, without revealing the identity ofthese Users). The aforementioned metadata may be public to Users,depending on the privacy settings of the Certifier. The aforementionedmetadata may also be selected, deselected, or given a relativeimportance (e.g. 28%) by a User in order to find Certifiers matching theinterests listed within their User Profiles. Statistics about Users (aslisted above) may include, but are not limited to: the number of Userswho subscribe to the Certifier, the percentage of Users who haveunsubscribed from the Certifier, the number of Users who trust theCertifier (e.g. the percentage of Users who have given the Certifier aminimum trust level rating, for example 70%; the percentage of Users forwhom the Certifier appears in the top quartile of trust levelsassociated with Certifiers, etc.) Certifier Profiles may also beassociated with metadata related to pricing. This metadata may include,but is not limited to, the minimum acceptable price per view, review, orsession; pricing scheme options available to a User (e.g. fixed,one-time subscription, yearly subscription, a la carte reviews, requiredminimum percentage of revenue from a User); the acceptable price rangeor percentage of revenue range that a User must pay in order to accessthe certification information.

A User's filtering capabilities extend into certified values and metricssuch that a User may filter out advertising messages that do not adhereto the User's specified values and metrics. A User may mix and choosevalues and metrics that they require be met through their Profilepreferences (e.g. require that eight out of ten values be met and twoout of three metrics be met). Examples of values and metrics that a Usercan filter upon include:

-   -   Customer support phone calls are answered at an average rate of        less than 3 minutes.    -   Wall Street Journal ranks the company's employee satisfaction        above 60%.    -   Average customer overall rating of at least 3 out of 5 stars.    -   Products manufactured in the their home country    -   Products sold by corporations where the CEO does not make more        than 500 times their least paid worker or 250 times their median        paid worker.    -   Products produced with at least 20% post-consumer recycled        composition.    -   Products packaged and shipped with minimal packaging as        certified by trusted Certifier(s).    -   Products produced using environmentally sustainable methods as        certified by trusted Certifier(s).

The values and metrics listed above may be stored within the Arkiïs™databases as metadata associated with a Provider. The values and metricsmay be listed alphabetically or by category on, for example, a searchpage, where Users can select or deselect values and metrics, or assignrelative importance ratings to each value and/or metric. Depending onthe embodiment, relative importance ratings may add up to 100%, or theymay be chosen by the User as any percentage from 0-100%, then normalizedby the Arkiïs™ engine so that their relative importance scores (from0.000 to 1.000 and in aggregate totaling 1.000) can be assigned.Alternatively, a User may choose to copy the settings of another User ora standard published/recommended by a Reviewer. In some embodiments, formetrics/values that can be selected or deselected, the number ofparameters which Content does not satisfy may be added together,multiplied by a factor depending on how important the User feels theirmetrics and values are, and subtracted from the score, representing thesuitability of Content for a User, used to rank Content. In embodimentswhere the metrics or values have a relative importance score, thisrelative importance score may be multiplied with a value of 1.0 for eachfactor which is unmet by the Content. If a User feels a value or metricis 0% important, the value/metric will receive an adjusted relativeimportance score of 0. Then, in the aforementioned embodiments, theadjusted relative importance scores may be added together and subtractedfrom the score, representing the suitability of Content for a User, usedto rank Content.

In a preferred embodiment, most of the value and metric requirements arecertified by independent Certifiers that have the resources required toeffectively provide certification, however, individual Reviewers mayalso certify values and metrics as part of their reviews. In a preferredembodiment, these certifications are stored within the Arkiïs™ databasesand can be accessed in response to a User's query. The Certifiers mayregister value and metric certifications they support. MultipleCertifiers may register for the same value or metric certification. AMember may submit a Market Request for value or metric certificationsthat are not sufficiently available from a source they trust. SomeCertifiers may certify the practices and integrity of other Certifiersor Reviewers. In such embodiments, the certifications may be part of themetadata associated with the Certifier or Reviewer who has beencertified. In the simplest case, Certifiers supply a yes or nocertification to be saved into the Arkiïs™ databases as of a particulardate for a particular company or product/service of a company. Morecomplex value and metric certifications may entail a grading system suchas a letter grade (e.g. A, B, C, D, or F and possibly fine-tuned witha + or −) or numerical percentage of adherence or a numerical grade.Each value and metric certification specifies the scale upon which it iscertified and the meaning of the possible grades. Some value and metriccertifications may specify an expiration time period before which acertification must be reassessed by a Certifier to remain current. Theexpiration date of a certification will, in a preferred embodiment, bestored as one of the data fields/tags associated with the certification.Alternatively, the date of certification may be stored as one of thedata fields/tags associated with the certification and each User mayspecify in their Profile preferences the criteria for expiration for oneor more value and/or metric certifications.

As with Reviewers, a User may choose to follow Certifiers they trust,linking their User Profiles to the Content produced by the Certifier.Depending on the embodiment and a User's settings, when a User follows aCertifier they may receive notifications when a Certifier provides a newcertification for a Product or shares Content. This may be done inmultiple ways—for example, every time a User decides to follow aCertifier the User's Profile may accrue a data index that is a uniqueidentifier of the Certifier's Profile. Upon each login, or after aspecified time interval once logged in, or as a periodic batch processor cron job executed in the background, the Arkiïs™ system may check fornew certifications by looking at all of the Certifier identifiersassociated with a User's Profile. Alternatively, when a User chooses tofollow a Certifier, an identifier associated with the User may be linkedto the Certifier's Profile. When the Certifier posts new material, theArkiïs™ system may access the list of User identifiers, using it to senda notification to any Users who have enabled such notifications withintheir Profile settings or alternatively, recording such activity in theUser Profiles of each listed User for subsequent efficient retrieval onbehalf of each such User. Furthermore, depending on the embodiment, aUser's connection to a Certifier through following the Certifier mayinfluence their payout for watching advertisements if the advertiserchooses to target their advertisements or hide their advertisements fromUsers who follow a certain Certifier or group/category of Certifiers.Trust may be provided on a sliding scale between 0% (untrusted) and 100%(absolute trust). A User's relative trust level of a Certifier may beused to sort certifications and allocate payments across Certifiers.Certifiers may also possess integrity ratings to assist others inevaluating their trustworthiness. Additionally, a User may designatevalue and metric requirements for Certifiers and automatically trustthem if the Certifier is itself certified to meet their value and metricrequirements by a Certifier they already trust. This may be donedynamically whenever a User accesses a Certifier's Profile within theArkiïs™ system. Alternatively, these Certifiers may be suggested aspossible Certifiers the User might like to trust. Alternatively, Usersmay initially base their trust of a Certifier upon the average trustlevel they have achieved by others or only by others with similarProfiles.

As shown in FIG. 29, Arkiïs™ provides mechanisms (create match customcertificate 2970) to associate Products (2950) with a User'spersonalized ratings/certifications (match certificate customized forUser 2980) deemed important to them. These personalized ratings areavailable in many different contexts (2962) such as when shopping onlineor when in a brick and mortar store. In one embodiment, the personalized(customized for User) ratings match certificate (2980) may be visualizedby a wheel with spokes divided into multiple pie sections, each with asize weighted by its relative importance to the User together withperimeter icons identifying the type of measurement in the adjacent piesection. In this embodiment, each section may contain ratings, metrics,and values (some of which may be certified) that are individualizedbased upon User Profile information (2964) preferences. For example, aperimeter leaf icon may identify one piece of the pie for a User'sspecified environmental impact manufacturing requirements. This sectionmay be visualized by red meaning few requirements are met, yellowmeaning an average amount are met, and green meaning most are met. Someof the metrics included within such visual representations ofpersonalized ratings may include how readily the Product (2950) itselfmay be recycled at the end of its life or the relative amount of energythe production of that Product (2950) required as compared to similarProducts as noted in database of information on detected items (2966).In the aforementioned embodiment, the pie section may be overlaid withthe symbol for the certifying Certifier in black print. A Product in astore may contain a small QR code or RFID tag to identify the Product toa User's Google® Glasses and/or other mobile device (item detected byUser's device 2960) and allow the product's values certifications to bepresented (delivered to User by their device 2990) and customized forthe Profile of the User (2964) viewing the Product. The customizedvalues certification may be displayed in a standardized presentation foreasy recognition and comparison with other Products. More easily on awebsite, a distinct Arkiïs™ template can be present for participatingProducts that also identifies their individualized values certificationfor the User viewing a webpage offering Products.

A User may be willing to pay, for example, 15% more for a Product thatadheres to values standards they require, and may wish to show theirstance to the world by having an easily recognizable unique look andfeel for Products that adhere to such a values standard. The system'splatform allows for these desires to be made known to Providers, who canthen meet these desires if enough Users stand behind a request. Forexample, Apple can offer a special iPhone® whose case is colored with adistinctive green plaid pattern that is readily identifiable and onlyplaced on these special phones that are produced in factories certifiedto be manufacturing using sustainable techniques including: paying aliving wage, carbon neutral production and shipping, and with arecyclable battery. The same distinctive packaging can also be offeredon other Products such as iPad®s and MacBooks that are also certified toadhere to the same standard. Users may band together to make a MarketRequest for such branding where it is not currently offered.

A Market Request is a published request for Products (e.g. Content,goods, services, certifications, or reviews) that do not exist yet orare out of stock but which may be desired by Users. A User may publish aMarket Request for something they conceive of and would like to acquire,or for an item they would like to locate in used condition. Depending onthe embodiment, a Market Request may be published through some sort offorum, discussion board, poll, or “wall” allowing Users to post theirown Market Requests and endorse those of other Users. These requestswill be stored in the Arkiïs™ databases and may have associated datafields including, but not limited to: date of request creation, numberof endorsements, encrypted identifiers of Users who have endorsed theMarket Request, etc. Market Requests may require associated keywordswhen creating the request, in order to facilitate simple searches.Market Requests may be placed into categories in some embodiments, andmay be sorted, either automatically or by the User, through differentvariables depending on the embodiment including number of votes,percentage of positive votes, etc. A User may support their own oranother's Market Request at a level of their choosing to encourage itsbeing created or offered. Simple support may just entail a positive votein support of a Market Request. Each vote may augment a variable integerwithin metadata associated with the Market Request in order to keeptrack of the number of votes, which may be used to rank Market Requestsfor display to Users. Alternatively, an encrypted identifier of eachUser who has voted for a Market Request may be stored within the MarketRequest metadata. More substantial support may be making a commitment tobuy the object of the published request in advance of its creation oravailability, perhaps even putting down a deposit in advance.Alternatively, a Provider may publish a request to spur and gauge theinterest of Users to proposed Content, goods, services, or reviews theyare considering offering. A User may disseminate a Market Request byusing Arkiïs™′ targeting capabilities to reach other Users that are morelikely to respond positively. Depending on the embodiment, thisdissemination may be done through the use of SyncGroups or friendshipnetworks or linked social media networks. A Market Request may includerequirement of anonymity-preserving notification from a supplier oncerequested goods or services are in stock or available. The sender mayhelp prioritize their message with the recipient by paying them toaccept it. Alternatively, the recipient may encourage notification byagreeing to cover the nominal Arkiïs™ fee for anonymously brokering themessage.

The Market Request mechanism may be applied to services and goods,whereby a Consumer may commit to purchase something they want but doesnot yet exist, such that when a sufficient body of Consumers commits aGoods & Services Provider may step in and fulfill the need. For example,a segment of the population may desire a smartphone made from recycledmaterials, while another segment may desire one completely manufacturedin the United States. Members of these segments may commit to buying asmartphone that satisfies their criteria, and by banding together withother Arkiïs™ Users, entice a Goods & Services Provider to fulfill theneed, given the Provider's reduced risk from the committed pre-orders.This feature of the Arkiïs™ system may allow Providers to reduce theuncertainty and costs of maintaining speculative inventories and movemore toward demand-driven manufacturing. If more than one Marketer iscompeting to meet a Market Request, the Consumers may choose from amongthe competing Marketers and may make a monetarycommitment/deposit/“pre-order” to select a particular Marketer of theirchoosing.

A User may find that there are no Reviewers in a Product or service areain which they are interested in purchasing. In such cases, they maypublish a Market Request via Arkiïs™ indicating the need for suchindependent reviews and may commit to pay for such reviews out of theirfuture ad payouts in that area. Potential Reviewers may be required tosatisfy the User's predefined criteria for gaining their trust as aReviewer in order to claim the User's pre-commitment.

Arkiïs™ allows for the efficient discovery of markets for non-existingreviews by connecting the stated Market Requests of Consumers with thosepotentially able to fulfill them. This may reduce the risk of the reviewProviders since they may anticipate a certain level of preallocatedpayout in addition to whatever payouts they normally accumulate as theirreviews are utilized. This may make it easier for the Reviewer to judgewhether it is worth their time to invest in reviewing a new area sincethe preallocated payouts may help them judge the return they can expect.This market may also produce competition among the Reviewers that mayreduce the cost of reviews over time.

Arkiïs™ may provide the infrastructure and technology to share a smallportion of revenues with those people or groups that helped to directthe User's Content choices. Arkiïs™ may maintain the accounting anddistribution of funds to reward those who assist helping a User decidewhat Content to consume.

12. Providing Payment for Content, Goods, and Services

Arkiïs™ provides payment systems that allow for multiple ways to pay forgoods and/or services. Submitting a payment through Arkiïs™ ensures thesafeguarding of a User's personal information and simplifies theverification of purchases in order to track a User's Arkiïs™ credits andboost their Consumer Marketing Performance Score to reflect theirintegrity rating. These payment systems may be used while retaining theanonymity of the payment initiator and/or recipient from each other.

In a preferred embodiment, a Marketer (402) may have the ability tocreate whatever formulas they desire to value how much they will (bid404) pay a User to consume their Targeted Marketing Content. The formulamay take as input information in a User's Profile (414) such astraditional demographic information, as well as novel information notpresent in those models such as the Consumer's Arkiïs™ marketingperformance score (410) that predicts the likelihood of a purchase. Inthe case of SyncGroup Profiles, the formula may apportion the payoutacross the SyncGroup members either evenly or by a weighted metric suchas their relative contribution to the SyncGroup's Arkiïs™ marketingscore. These new metrics include the context (412) such as the User'spurchase intents, current emotional state (e.g. mood), friends andbusiness associates that they are currently interacting with, currentevents in the world, Content recently consumed, etc.

Inputs to a bid's (404) payout formula may vary widely over time toreflect the value (actualize bid offered 430) an advertiser places ondelivering (yes 426) a Content (406) message during a particular context(412) such as the current time. Such formulas in the bid (404) allow fora negative payout/actualize bid offered (430) at times when the Marketer(402) does not want the Content (406) to be consumed by a User, thusrequiring at times for a User to pay Marketer (402) to consume Content(406). A Marketer may even require an infinite negative payout tosignify that in the current context (406) a User is prohibited (no 424,not delivered 422) from consuming their Content (406) message throughthe Arkiïs™ system.

A Marketer may include in their payout formula an aspect to account forwhen an advertisement has been recommended or forwarded by another Userto possibly apportion some of the payout to the recommending orforwarding User and/or to reduce or increase the payout to the consumingUser. Such sharing may, in some embodiments, be apportioned up the chaintransitively in a decaying manner (e.g. geometrically by halving) toreward key recommenders that contribute to a Content message becomingviral. For example, if Alice watches and then forwards the message toBob, who watches and forwards it to Charlie, who watches and forwards itto Dawn, the payout related to Dawn consuming the message Content maypay Dawn $2.00 with Charlie receiving $1.00, and Bob getting $0.50, andfinally Alice getting $0.25. Likewise, when Charlie viewed, he may havereceived $4.00, and Bob getting $2.00 and Alice receiving $1.00. IfAlice sends it to multiple people and ultimately significantlycontributes to a viral campaign, she may be duly compensated in thismatter for her network effect in some embodiments. A Marketer may varythe payout formula to account for how much a message has been viewed,such as for example, to account for a message going viral and beingsuddenly watched by huge numbers of individuals. Such payout adjustmentmay reduce or increase the payout according to the number of views,likes, or other recommendations and comments a Content message hasreceived.

Another aspect of the changing formula is that if a User suspendswatching a message mid-stream, when they are ready to resume play, theformula may no longer provide the same payout that was originallypromised when they first started watching the commercial and thus theUser may choose to defer resuming the message until the same or similarcircumstances/context return (if ever) such that the payout iscomparable to the original promised amount.

In some embodiments, a User may see average Targeted Marketing Contentpayouts for those Users whose Profile demographics are similar to theirown profile's demographics. This may aid the User in configuring theirown profile's filters related to minimum Targeted Marketing Contentpayouts that they are willing to accept based upon norms for theirdemographics.

A User may configure their Profile to filter out advertising whosepayout is disadvantageous to their current situation, needs, and/ordesires. For example, Users may configure their Profiles such that whenwatching live sporting events, their feed is never to be delayed.Because Targeted Marketing Content may be cut off, due to, for example,being at the end of a commercial break, the User, Arkiïs™, or anotherservice provider may select Targeted Marketing Content to statisticallymaximize the User's average payout.

The following scenario depicts an example of advertisement selectionbased on a User's Profile preferences. Daniel is watching livevolleyball using his customized Arkiïs™ Roku™ channel. At the end of oneof the games, the live broadcast goes to commercial break that isexpected to be 3 minutes long. Daniel's Profile preferences requirecommercials that are rated as funny by others with similar tastes toDaniel as long as their pay is not more than 20% below the highestpaying commercial available to him at any given time. At this time theArkiïs™ cloud servers determine, based upon Daniel's Profile, that thefollowing commercials in Table 2 can be served to Daniel:

TABLE 2 Title Duration Payout Rate/Min. Funniness Pepsi ® Elton John 1.0min $1.25 $1.25 9 Coors Beer 1.0 min $1.50 $1.50 6 Geico Insurance 0.5min $0.75 $1.50 5 OfficeMax 0.5 min $0.85 $1.70 3 eTrade 1.0 min $1.33$1.33 1 Lexus Hybrid 1.0 min $1.65 $1.55 0

The software-enabled algorithm on the Arkiïs™ cloud servers computesthat the highest paying commercial is OfficeMax at $1.70 per minute;however, there are three funnier commercials that may be given prioritybased upon Daniel's Profile. Per Daniel's Profile requirements theservers do not select the Pepsi® Elton John commercial because it is notwithin 80% of the highest paying commercial; instead the servers streamCoors and then Geico to Daniel in the first one and a half minutes ofthe break. The servers compute that OfficeMax plays third, leaving oneminute in the current break and Lexus as the highest paying and Pepsi®as the funniest remaining. The servers play Pepsi® as the lastcommercial before returning from break since it is now within 20% of thehighest paying remaining commercial. Daniel has earned a total of $5.95.Alternatively, Daniel receives the list of available targetedcommercials before they are played and using his smartphone he reviewsthe list and rejects the OfficeMax commercial and gives his reason asnot being in the mood. The rejection and reason are transmitted to theArkiïs™ cloud servers that do not immediately adjust his Profile sincehis reason was given as being very transitory, however, the rejection isrecorded for future reference to see if a pattern develops. The server'sselection algorithm honors his rejection and adjusts the computation ofwhich commercials he is served.

Inputs to the formula may include portions of the ad that have beenconsumed, and in what fashion. The simplest such description is a Userconsuming an ad in its entirety from beginning to end in a singleuninterrupted session. More complex descriptions include scenarios wherethe User does not finish the ad in a single session and returns to itlater to complete, perhaps rewinding to an encoded entry point beforeresuming. The Consumer may even fast-forward and skip some portionsaltogether. The Marketer may structure their payout formula such thatpartial payouts may be earned as the ad is consumed based upon how farinto the ad a User has consumed (e.g., viewed or listened) and in whatmanner was that point reached. For example, all payouts may be withhelduntil the first ten seconds of the ad has been consumed, or withhelduntil the whole ad is consumed in its entirety, or even require theconsuming to be uninterrupted (never paused).

In some implementations, a Consumer always has the option to red-flagContent as being inappropriately targeted toward them. This can bebecause they judge it to not match their objectives, interests or moralthresholds. When red-flagging, the User may explain the reason(s) forrejection and, in a preferred embodiment, in return they may receive thefull payout as if they had consumed the complete message. This Feedbackallows the Content Producer to adjust their targeting to potentiallyreduce future conflicts. A User's red-flagging history may be recordedas part of their Profile and abuse of the feature can lead toadvertisers reducing their payout formula to such a User or avoidingthem altogether.

FIG. 30 is an exemplary stream selector system that can be used inconjunction with the technologies described herein.

As seen in FIG. 30 Stream Selector 3000 is fed an assortment of LiveBroadcast Streams 3070 together with Static Stored Streams 3071 asinputs and selects one such stream to be the Deliver Stream 3010. Theselection is performed by analyzing Contextual Information 3080, StreamMeta Information 3072, and Profile Information 3050. Profile Information3050 may be augmented by the Create Feedback 3020 in response toDelivered Stream 3010. FIG. 31 shows exemplary matching multipleMarketer 402 Bid(s) 404 that are actualized bid(s) offered 430 viastatic stored streams 3071. FIG. 31 shows two examples. On the left isan example of a single User receiving bids from multiple advertisers. Onthe right is an example of a single advertiser sending bids to multipleUsers. As shown in FIG. 31, only bolded bids are delivered, stream 3010.Additionally FIG. 31 shows an example for a single Marketer 402 withmultiple Bid(s) 404 for different User Profile(s) 414 where only boldedoutline circles/blocks are yes 426 Deliver bid 420 in actualize bidoffered 430 and unbolded outline circles/blocks are No 424 Not delivered422. Explaining the left side example from the perspective of the flowdiagram of FIG. 2, content selector 208 receives the three bids. Onlythe bolded bid is delivered to User 210 resulting in a payment modulecredit of $0.25 at 216. Each of the bids has associated therewithmeta-data as shown generally at 204. Turning to the example on the rightside of FIG. 31, five Users 210 submit bids for an advertisement. Theexamples in FIG. 31 can also be seen from the perspective of FIG. 4where the marketer's perspective is shown. On the left example, thereare three marketers 402. All three marketers 402 generated bids 404 andall three became actualized 430. Each marketer generates its bid withoutnecessarily having knowledge of the bids by other marketers. On theright example, there is a single marketer 402 that is looking at fiveprofiles 414. Of the five bids, three pass through content selector anddelivered to User 210 resulting in a credit by payment module 216 toeach corresponding User 210.

If a Consumer makes a forward-looking Assertion about their intention topurchase a particular Product in a given time frame, this may increasethe payout value for receiving related ads. Advertisers may providepayouts for such ads that are divided between the standard cash portionfor watching this type of advertisement and a coupon or rebate for anyProduct in that category (not necessarily that advertiser's product)representing the added value due to the Consumer's forward lookingAssertions. In this way, advertisers only pay for forward-lookingAssertions that are actually fulfilled. This allows an advertiser tovalue a User's statements in an area where the User has no track recordby tying payment to fulfillment of their forward-looking Assertion. Thiscan be accomplished in many ways including: providing a coupon for apurchase that matches the User's professed intentions, providing arebate where a proof-of-purchase matching the professed Assertionqualifies for the rebate, or providing a monetary payout that iscontingent upon confirmed Assertion fulfillment (e.g. purchases) byArkiïs™ The payout may include a bonus that triggers if the purchase hasadditional qualities not originally specified in the User's professedAssertion. For example, if a User indicated they were going to buy a TV,an advertiser might offer a bonus if they chose an OLED type of TVbecause the advertiser believes that if the purchaser researches OLEDTVs that they are more likely to buy their brand.

The following example shows one embodiment of the system which utilizesensured integrity payouts: Frank is in the market for a new large screentelevision and Samsung targets him with an ad that will pay him $25 ifhe buys any 50″ or larger television in the next three months becausethey are so confident that if they can reach him with this message abouttheir new OLED technology that he will buy their television based on hisProfile showing that he is a videophile. He receives a coupon or rebateoffer that requires proof of purchase of a television and is paid, eventhough he buys the competing LG OLED television instead.

When using an Arkiïs™ identifier, a User may choose to shop at brick andmortar stores with cash while retaining the traceability features ofusing a credit card. For example, many stores can locate a receipt intheir systems electronically by the shopper presenting the credit cardused for purchase. When paying with cash, a User may present an Arkiïs™identifier in one of several possible ways including: swiping an Arkiïs™card using the credit card terminals, waving their Arkiïs™-enabled phone(e.g. using Near Field Communication (NFC) feature), scanning an Arkiïs™loyalty card barcode or QR code, and/or manually typing in their Arkiïs™identifier number on a terminal. Subsequently, if the shopper were toreturn to the store and needed their receipt, for example, because theywished to return an item, the store is able to locate it using theirArkiïs™ identifier presented again in one of these ways. Alternatively,at the time of purchase, a store may transmit a receipt to Arkiïs™ forstorage with the purchaser's Profile, thus allowing easy retrieval bythe User at a future time.

In some embodiments, Arkiïs™ may offer a feature that is configurable byeach User such that whenever that User is shopping at the store eitherphysically or online, the store may receive temporary access to theircomplete purchase history at that store for the duration of theirshopping experience.

The Arkiïs™ identifier may vary by time or by store in some embodiments.For example, there may be a handshake protocol (an exchange of signalsbetween a store and a customer when initiating communications in orderto ensure anonymous synchronization) whereby the store presents anidentifier to uniquely identify the store (e.g. Target or Safeway) and aunique version of the User's Arkiïs™ identifier is generated from thestore's identifier for use each time the User visits that store to allowthe store to retrieve permissible details about the User from Arkiïs™The store-specific identifier may be provided using many of the sametechniques in which a general identifier can be given by first supplyingthe store's identifier to the process which generates the User's storespecific identifier. In some embodiments, a smartphone can see the namesof wireless networks in its vicinity and deduce the store in which it ispresent and put forth a digital identifier (e.g. a QR code) on thesmartphone's display for scanning by the register or transmitted to theregister such as by NFC. Alternatively, GPS can be used to identify thestore or NFC, or some combination of several methods. The User'sidentifier may vary by date, with the identifier changing periodically,such as monthly, or every two weeks. Were the customer to return to thestore wishing to locate their receipt, they can provide their identifieras of the date of their purchase, or if unsure, provide a range ofidentifiers until a match is found, or check their Profile to see whatidentifiers were passed out and only supply those.

In addition, the cash identifier may also be used to build a User'sProfile to include a record of confirmed purchases paid for by cash.These verified purchases will boost a User's Consumer MarketingPerformance Score, especially if the purchase was the fulfillment of anAssertion. Therefore, the use of an Arkiïs™ identifier when making apurchase will augment the value of a User's attention to Providers andincrease the profits the User makes when receiving advertisementsrelevant to a verified purchase.

For years, some credit card suppliers have allowed their customers togenerate virtual credit card numbers that may only be used for a singlepurchase, for a set amount of time, and/or which may have a dollar limiton that purchase as selected by their customer. These one-time creditcard numbers are traditionally used for online purchases to help reducefraud and ensure unauthorized recurring charges do not appear on acredit card. Arkiïs™ facilitates, preferably with existing credit cardproviders, the generation and integration of these virtual credit cardnumbers and allows for purchases made with these cards to automaticallybe tracked in a User's Profile like a cash identifier. Arkiïs™preferably maintains the total or partial anonymity of the User fromvendors while partnering with other payment technology companies andservicers to facilitate returns and find receipts, thus opening a newmarket for these cards at brick and mortar stores to have the anonymityof cash.

In some embodiments, Arkiïs™ may offer a new kind of virtual credit cardnumber that only places restrictions on charges while allowing unlimitedcredits (e.g. Product returns or advertising payouts to Users) tofurther facilitate returns using the same card which may no longer bevalid for purchases at the time of return. Arkiïs™ may also provide avirtual card number in alternate embodiments that may only be used atone merchant, specified either at the time of virtual number generationor upon the first use of the virtual card number. In furtherembodiments, a card number may be generated that may only be used for apredetermined number of purchase transactions. Arkiïs™ may allow virtualcredit card numbers to be used with credit card providers that do notprovide this service by acting as an intermediary that does provide suchnumbers, then charges the original credit card provider using atraditional card number without revealing that number to the merchantand/or optionally not revealing what was purchased or what store to thecredit card issuer. In the case of rebate credit cards, the User mayrequest Arkiïs™ to properly categorize their purchase with the creditcard issuer (e.g. gasoline or restaurant) so that they are properlycredited with the appropriate premium rebate category (e.g. 5% forgasoline or 3% for restaurants). Depending on the embodiment, Arkiïs™may integrate support for virtual credit card numbers through any of themechanisms used for supplying a cash identifier. The likes of Chip-n-Pin(i.e. an integrated circuit chip card that requires a PIN to make apurchase) may be combined with virtual credit card numbers where thecircuit on the credit card automatically generates and supplies avirtual credit card number. Such credit cards may be integrated withsmartphone or smartwatch technology to provide an electronic wallet thatsecurely contains all a User's payment options together with Arkiïs™solutions to retain anonymity and tracking of confirmed purchases tobuild a rich profile.

The Arkiïs™ system of tools and processes includes multiple mechanismsby which third parties (preferably independent) may provide valueincluding the addition of information, reviews, add-on tools (e.g.plug-ins), certifications, rankings, and ratings to Users in areas suchas ranking or filtering Content and judging values and metrics ofadvertisements as well as goods and services. Users may wish to sharetheir revenue and/or directly pay for these services because the valuecreated by these services is great, and without payment the benefit ofsuch services would likely not be available.

The Arkiïs™ system includes multiple ways in which remuneration may besupplied to third parties. It may be allocated as a percentage ofpayouts and/or purchases. Based on the embodiment, this allocation maybe distributed across multiple third parties based upon theirapplicability, trust level, usage and/or value. For example, the periodof time a User reviews the Content may be used to prorate the portion ofthe overall allocation that is attributed to the Content oralternatively, Content remuneration may be prorated based upon the trustlevel, grade or value the User places on information, possibly combinedwith the average or aggregate trust level, grade or value of all otherUsers or of only those Users with similar Profiles. Alternatively,allocations may be assigned to third parties individually.

Additionally, the suppliers of Content, goods, or services and the likemay wish to compensate third-party Providers (e.g. Reviewers, advocates,and Champions) that in any way increase the probability of their waresbeing purchased and/or consumed. Sellers may choose to allocate apercentage of the purchase price of Products toward third parties whosework impacts the likelihood of a sale or participates in a buyer'sdecision process. In some embodiments, the seller may pay third partiesregardless of whether their Product is actually purchased. Payments maybe triggered whenever a potential buyer accesses that third party'sinformation about their Product. The allocation may be a totalallocation that is divided up proportionately across contributing thirdparties based upon their statistically determined contribution value. Inalternate embodiments, each third party may be given a specificallocation.

In some embodiments, third parties may have minimum payout requirementsthat must be agreed to before their Content is visible or alternatively,their Content may only be partially visible if terms are not agreed to,or they may have multiple tiers of revelation and acceptance of eachtier's terms (e.g. clicking to reveal more information) additionallyreveals that tier's information. Required terms may be a fixed cost forinformation or a conditional cost that is only triggered if a particularaction is taken or event occurs such as a purchase.

When information may be partially considered or consumed, paymentstructures may be prorated or adjusted based upon the relative portionof information considered, relied upon, and/or the amount of time suchinformation is perused.

The following example usage scenario describes one embodiment of thedisclosed system. Melody wants to buy a Blu-Ray player in the next monthand posts her intent in her Arkiïs™ Profile. Her Profile shows that sheonly wants to buy consumer goods Products that are manufactured usingsustainable techniques as certified by The Nature Conservancy. She alsowants a Product with an interface that scores at least 4 out of 5 inusability as scored by a Human Computer Interaction expert she trusts.Because of this, she is offered a commercial for a Sony player that pays$1 for a Product that meets her criteria except that it does not have ausability certification from a Reviewer she already trusts but it hasbeen highly reviewed by Joe, someone she does not yet trust. She acceptsthe commercial and the commercial ends with a link to Joe's review. Sheclicks on the link and reads the review from Joe, the Reviewer she isnot familiar with, but who has a following of several hundred Users thatgive him high trust marks, including her friend Kristen. She studies thereview and watches some of the review's attached video segments thatdemonstrate the usability features of the Sony player. Given Joe'sreview and the low price tag, Melody decides to take a chance on Joe andbuy the player. Sony pays Joe $0.50 for presenting his review to Melodyand when she subsequently follows through and purchases it, Sony payshim another $2.00. After receiving the player and using it for twoweeks, Melody decides she is happy and raises her trust level on Joefrom 0% to 50% and agrees to pay Joe $0.20 for each review she reads ofhis. A few months later, after not buying another Product based uponJoe's review and hearing of a friend who did end up buying it and wasunhappy, as predicted by Joe, she raises her trust level on Joe to 75%and now agrees to pay him $0.30 for each review of his that sheconsiders. Sony also pays The Nature Conservancy $0.25 for showing intheir ad the Nature Conservancy's certification that the player'smanufacture in China is using sustainable practices such as paying aliving wage, buying carbon offsets, and not polluting the environment.Sony pays another $1 upon Melody's purchase since the certification wasa prerequisite she listed in her buying Assertion.

13. Exemplary General Purpose Computing System

The system described herein may be implemented on a variety of generalpurpose or specialized computing systems. General purpose computingsystems may include, laptops, desktop computers, DVR players, Roku™devices, Blu-Ray players, set top boxes, cable boxes, etc. Specializeddevices may include a DVR that is designed especially for the Arkiïs™system to automatically collect data about a User and prepare Contentfor their on demand viewing. Such devices may be wholly or partiallyimplemented with cloud functionality.

FIG. 32 depicts a generalized example of a suitable general purposecomputing system 3200 in which the described innovations may beimplemented. The computing system 3200 is not intended to suggest anylimitation as to scope of use or functionality, as the innovations maybe implemented in diverse general-purpose or special-purpose computingsystems. For example, the computing system 3200 can be any of a varietyof computing devices (e.g., desktop computer, laptop computer, servercomputer, tablet computer, media player, gaming system, mobile device,etc.).

With reference to FIG. 32, the computing system 3200 includes one ormore processing units 3210, 3215 and memory 3220, 3225. In FIG. 32, thisbasic configuration 3230 is included within a dashed line. Theprocessing units 3210, 3215 execute computer-executable instructions. Aprocessing unit can be a general-purpose central processing unit (CPU),processor in an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) or anyother type of processor. In a multi-processing system, multipleprocessing units execute computer-executable instructions to increaseprocessing power. For example, FIG. 32 shows a central processing unit3210 as well as a graphics processing unit or co-processing unit 3215.The tangible memory 3220, 3225 may be volatile memory (e.g., registers,cache, RAM), non-volatile memory (e.g., ROM, EEPROM, flash memory,etc.), or some combination of the two, accessible by the processingunit(s). In some implementations, the memory 3220, 3225 stores software3280 implementing, at least in part, one or more innovations describedherein, in the form of computer-executable instructions suitable forexecution by the processing unit(s).

A computing system may have additional features. For example, thecomputing system 3200 includes storage 3240, one or more input devices3250, one or more output devices 3260, and one or more communicationconnections 3270. An interconnection mechanism (not shown) such as abus, controller, or network interconnects the components of thecomputing system 3200. Typically, operating system software (not shown)provides an operating system for other software executing in thecomputing system 3200, and coordinates activities of the components ofthe computing system 3200.

The tangible storage 3240 may be removable or non-removable, andincludes magnetic disks, magnetic tapes or cassettes, CD-ROMs, DVDs, orany other medium which can be used to store information in anon-transitory way and which can be accessed within the computing system3200. The storage 3240 stores instructions for the software 3280implementing one or more innovations described herein.

The input device(s) 3250 may be a touch input device such as a keyboard,mouse, pen, or trackball, a voice input device, a scanning device, oranother device that provides input to the computing system 3200. Forvideo encoding, the input device(s) 3250 may be a camera, video card, TVtuner card, or similar device that accepts video input in analog ordigital form, or a CD-ROM or CD-RW that reads video samples into thecomputing system 3200. The output device(s) 3260 may be a display,printer, speaker, CD-writer, or another device that provides output fromthe computing system 3200.

The communication connection(s) 3270 enable communication over acommunication medium to another computing entity. The communicationmedium conveys information such as computer-executable instructions,audio or video input or output, or other data in a modulated datasignal. A modulated data signal is a signal that has one or more of itscharacteristics set or changed in such a manner as to encode informationin the signal. By way of example, and not limitation, communicationmedia can use an electrical, optical, RF, or other carrier.

The innovations can be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as those included in programmodules, being executed in a computing system on a target real orvirtual processor. Generally, program modules include routines,programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, etc.that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract datatypes. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or splitbetween program modules as desired in various embodiments.Computer-executable instructions for program modules may be executedwithin a local or distributed computing system.

The terms “system” and “computing device” are used interchangeablyherein. Unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, neither termimplies any limitation on a type of computing system or computingdevice. In general, a computing system or computing device can be localor distributed, and can include any combination of special-purposehardware and/or general-purpose hardware with software implementing thefunctionality described herein.

14. Exemplary General Purpose Mobile Device

The system described herein may be implemented on a variety of generalpurpose or specialized mobile devices. General-purpose devices mayinclude, iPhone®, iPad®, Android Tablet, Android Smartphone, Smartwatch,etc. Specialized devices may include a smartwatch or similar mobiledevice that is designed especially for the Arkiïs™ system toautomatically collect data about a User and coordinate with the variousdevices a User interacts with. Such devices may be wholly or partiallyimplemented with cloud functionality.

FIG. 33 is a system diagram depicting an exemplary general purposemobile device 3300 including a variety of optional hardware and softwarecomponents, shown generally at 3302. Any components 3302 in the mobiledevice can communicate with any other component, although not allconnections are shown, for ease of illustration. The mobile device canbe any of a variety of computing devices (e.g., cell phone, smartphone,handheld computer, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), etc.) and can allowwireless two-way communications with one or more mobile communicationsnetworks 3304, such as a cellular, satellite, or other network.

The illustrated mobile device 3300 can include a controller or processor3310 (e.g., signal processor, microprocessor, ASIC, or other control andprocessing logic circuitry) for performing such tasks as signal coding,data processing, input/output processing, power control, and/or otherfunctions. An operating system 3312 can control the allocation and usageof the components 3302 and support for one or more application programs3314. The application programs can include common mobile computingapplications (e.g., email applications, calendars, contact managers, webbrowsers, messaging applications), or any other computing application.Functionality 3313 for accessing an application store can also be usedfor acquiring and updating applications 3314.

The illustrated mobile device 3300 can include memory 3320, Memory 3320can include non-removable memory 3322 and/or removable memory 3324. Thenon-removable memory 3322 can include RAM, ROM, flash memory, a harddisk, or other well-known memory storage technologies. The removablememory 3324 can include flash memory or a Subscriber Identity Module(SIM) card, which is well known in GSM communication systems, or otherwell-known memory storage technologies, such as “smart cards.” Thememory 3320 can be used for storing data and/or code for running theoperating system 3312 and the applications 3314. Example data caninclude web pages, text, images, sound files, video data, or other datasets to be sent to and/or received from one or more network servers orother devices via one or more wired or wireless networks. The memory3320 can be used to store a subscriber identifier, such as anInternational Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), and an equipmentidentifier, such as an International Mobile Equipment Identifier (IMEI).Such identifiers can be transmitted to a network server to identifyusers and equipment.

The mobile device 3300 can support one or more input devices 3330, suchas a touchscreen 3332, microphone 3334, camera 3336, physical keyboard3338 and/or trackball 3340 and one or more output devices 3350, such asa speaker 3352 and a display 3354. Other possible output devices (notshown) can include piezoelectric or other haptic output devices. Somedevices can serve more than one input/output function. For example,touchscreen 3332 and display 3354 can be combined in a singleinput/output device.

The input devices 3330 can include a Natural User Interface (NUI). AnNUI is any interface technology that enables a user to interact with adevice in a “natural” manner, free from artificial constraints imposedby input devices such as mice, keyboards, remote controls, and the like.Examples of NUI methods include those relying on speech recognition(including using lip-reading technology to improve accuracy), touch andstylus recognition, gesture recognition both on screen and adjacent tothe screen, air gestures, head and eye tracking, voice and speech,vision, touch, gestures, and machine intelligence. Other examples of aNUI include motion gesture detection using accelerometers/gyroscopes,facial recognition, 3D displays, head, eye, and gaze tracking, immersiveaugmented reality and virtual reality systems, all of which provide amore natural interface, as well as technologies for sensing brainactivity using electric field sensing electrodes (EEG and relatedmethods). Thus, in one specific example, the operating system 3312 orapplications 3314 can comprise speech-recognition software, that mayoptionally include lip-reading technology for improved accuracy, as partof a voice user interface that allows a user to operate the device 3300via voice commands. Further, the device 3300 can comprise input devicesand software that allows for user interaction via a user's spatialgestures, such as detecting and interpreting gestures to provide inputto a gaming application.

A wireless modem 3360 can be coupled to an antenna (not shown) and cansupport two-way communications between the processor 3310 and externaldevices, as is well understood in the art. The modem 3360 is showngenerically and can include a cellular modem for communicating with themobile communication network 3304 and/or other radio-based modems (e.g.,Bluetooth 3364 or Wi-Fi 3362). The wireless modem 3360 is typicallyconfigured for communication with one or more cellular networks, such asa GSM network for data and voice communications within a single cellularnetwork, between cellular networks, or between the mobile device and apublic switched telephone network (PSTN).

The mobile device can further include at least one input/output port3380, a power supply 3382, a satellite navigation system receiver 3384,such as a Global Positioning System (GPS) receiver, an accelerometer3386, one or more other sensors 3387 (e.g., thrust/jerk sensor,barometer, thermometer, hygrometer, and/or other types of sensors),and/or a physical connector 3390, which can be a USB port, IEEE 1394(FireWire) port, and/or RS-232 port. The illustrated components 3302 arenot required or all-inclusive, as any components can be deleted andother components can be added.

Mobile devices (and more generally computers) afford the opportunity toautomatically collect vast amounts of detailed Profile information, suchas illustrated in FIG. 11 with data generated by User's mobile devicesand computers 1110. Within the Arkiïs™ system, Users may view and changetheir collection controls whenever and however they desire, and havecomplete control over the flow of their data into the system. The Usermay control collection at various levels of granularity depending on theembodiment as well as create rules that specify different collectioncriteria under different circumstances. Users may also configure rulesto notify and/or alert them when they can potentially and/or areactually being recorded (e.g. audio, video, photo, social interactionhistory) by the automated collection of Profile information beingperformed by the Arkiïs™ system on behalf of another Arkiïs™ User on theother User's device. For example, in some embodiments, such asillustrated in FIG. 34, a User may have rules triggered by theirlocation (Spatial Rule), other Users if they are around and engaged inactivity (Social Rule), or time (Temporal Rule). As further shown inFIG. 34, rules are either default, whitelist, or blacklist rules. In oneembodiment, initially, all collection is off and this is overridden bydefault rules that specifically enable collection of specific kinds ofdata. Default rules specify a static collection Profile, indicating thekinds of data to collect, the frequency of collection, and the accuracyto be retained for the collected data. A default rule may specify that akind of data is not collected by default yet still specify a defaultfrequency of collection and/or a default accuracy to retain, the purposebeing to supply a default value for these fields in the event that awhitelist rule enables collection but does not specify frequency and/oraccuracy. The static collection profile is then continually adjustedaccording to the whitelist and blacklist rules as they come into and outof applicability over time. The whitelist and blacklist rules aremaintained in a sequential ordering that represents their relativepriority and are applied in the priority order in which they are listed.In a preferred embodiment, once an aspect of collection is specified bya rule that triggers, no further lower priority rules are applied tothat aspect at that moment in time (e.g. if collection of a kind of datais turned on by a whitelist rule or turned off by a black list rule,lower priority rules for that kind of data do not apply until thetriggering rule no longer applies). A blacklist rule can be thought ofas being equivalent to a whitelist rule with the same trigger thatspecifies a frequency of collection of zero, meaning the data is nevercollected. The ordered whitelist and blacklist rules are processed inpriority order and each rule's condition is tested and if true, the ruleis applied to enable some aspect of data collection (e.g. turningcollection on or off, specifying the frequency of collection, orspecifying the accuracy of the collected data). Condition buildingblocks are time, location, and social that may be combined togetherusing Boolean operators including: AND, OR, XOR, and NOT. To make theapp easier to use for those not wishing to have app complexity, thewhitelist and blacklist functionality may be hidden, partially disabled,and/or completely disabled when the User Profile does not specify themas being an expert and/or according to the User Profile preference.Selecting what data to collect is too complex and time consuming for oneor more humans to carry out and thus requires the automation of a rulebased system implemented with a one or more computing devices, whichwhen using this method is able to meet the exact desires of a User tocontrol their data collection, previously unattainable without thismethod.

A temporal condition for a rule tests the local time for the User to seewhether it falls between a start and end time. By default, such testsare time zone relative so that a rule set in the Pacific Time Zone totrigger between 9 am and 10 am still applies between 9 am and 10 am whenthe User happens to be located in the Eastern Time Zone instead ofshifting it to between noon and 1 pm. However, a User may designate thata temporal condition be absolute and thus is adjusted for the local timezone as compared to the time zone in which it was created. Temporalconditions may also specify calendar components similar to how acalendar application functions such as allowing selection of days of theweek, a recurrence interval, etc.

A spatial condition for a rule tests whether the User's present locationfalls within a specified geographical area. The geographical area of aspatial condition may be specified as either a circle defined by itscenter and radius or as a polygon specified by its vertices. Such a testmay be configured to be neutral, aggressive, or conservative to takeinto account possible error in the location determination method beingused (e.g. GPS or Wi-Fi triangulation). Aggressive and conservativeconfiguration settings include a confidence probability setting that maydefault to 99% likely. An aggressive configuration may include locationsoutside the specified area such that the probability of mistakenly nottriggering the rule matches the confidence level assigned to thatcondition building block. Conversely, a conservative configuration mayexclude locations just within the specified area such that theprobability of mistakenly triggering the rule matches the confidencelevel assigned. For example, if the current location identificationmethod were accurate 99% of the time to be within two meters of theUser's actual location, then an aggressive rule set to 99% confidenceexpands the target area outward by two meters. Similarly, a conservativeconfiguration set to 99% confidence level contracts the target areainward by two meters. As such, it is possible for a conservativeconfiguration to never trigger in the case that the contraction resultsin an empty area. When an empty area results, the User may be warnedthat their rule has no effect. Finally, a neutral configuration isneither expanded nor contracted.

A social condition tests whether the User is presently engaged in aSyncGroup or in Physical or Virtual Proximity of other Users or ofothers not identified as being Users. Alternatively, a social conditionmay test whether the User is presently engaged in an activity, e.g.playing golf or eating a meal. This may be determined by a User's inputdescribing what activity they are taking part in currently, or bylocation data (e.g. through GPS or Wi-Fi triangulation) which matches alocation where an activity generally takes place (e.g. a golf course) orby analyzing microphone data, accelerometer data, camera and video data,or a combination of the aforementioned factors. For example, a socialcondition may specify not to record microphone data when in PhysicalProximity to others, whether they are identified as Users or not. Othersnot identified as being Users may include the detection of Bluetoothsignals from other phones in the vicinity of a User not known to beregistered to the User.

A Boolean condition tests one or more temporal, spatial, or socialconditions and combines them together using Boolean operators such asAND, OR, NOT, XOR, NAND, NOR, etc. A Boolean condition may also becombined recursively within another Boolean condition, for example(Between 6 pm and 7 pm AND at home) OR (between 7 am and 8 am AND (NOTat work))) is an OR rule that itself combines two Boolean conditionsthat are each using an AND condition, one of which further combines atemporal condition together with a Boolean NOT condition.

Mobile devices allow for the automated collection at points in timealong various metrics that include:

-   -   Location        -   GPS        -   Wi-Fi Triangulation (WLAN)        -   Mobile Tower ID Triangulation        -   Magnetic field detection (e.g. compass for orientation)    -   Accelerometer    -   Climate        -   Humidity        -   Temperature        -   Air Pressure    -   Biometric        -   Pulse rate        -   Blood pressure        -   Blood sugar level        -   Blood oxygen level        -   Pupil dilation        -   Eye tracking point        -   Facial expression        -   Voice level and emotional quality    -   Bluetooth (e.g. visible or connected devices)    -   Audio    -   Video    -   Call log    -   SMS log    -   Browser history    -   Contacts    -   Installed/Running apps    -   Purchases made via NFC (e.g. Google® Wallet) and credit card    -   Screen status    -   Battery status    -   Social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) activity

Rules for automated data collection for data types may specify howaccurately the data may be recorded. For example, for location data, aUser may prefer that their location only be recorded to the nearest 100meters even though their mobile device can provide a much more accuratemeasure. For example, such obfuscation may be done as either rounding tothe nearest 100 meters, or adding in a random plus or minus 50 meters,or some combination of both. Alternatively, for time stamp data, a Usermay prefer that the time stamp on their data measurements only berecorded to the nearest five minutes, by again either rounding, adding arandom noise factor, or both. Similarly, a rule may specify thefrequency of data collection, for example, taking a sample every sixseconds or only once every 15 minutes. Such accuracy controls may have arandom variation built in, e.g. sample once every 60 seconds plus orminus 10 seconds. As another example, a User may prefer that audio dataonly be collected when they are engaged in a telephone call, engaged invideo call, or present in a public location such as a restaurant or bar.

In some embodiments, Users may wish for wholly fictitious data to begenerated and added to their Profile, possibly mixed together with dataactually based upon their real (non-fictitious) information.

15. Exemplary General Purpose Cloud Computing System

The system described herein may be implemented on a variety of generalpurpose or specialized cloud computing systems. General purpose cloudcomputing systems may include, Amazon® EC3, etc. Specialized cloudcomputing systems may include a cloud with hardware, configuration,and/or characteristics designed especially for the Arkiïs™ system tooptimize services such as automatically collecting data about a User andcoordinating with the various devices a User interacts with.

FIG. 35 depicts an example general-purpose cloud computing system 3500in which the described technologies can be implemented. The cloudcomputing system 3500 comprises cloud computing services 3510. The cloudcomputing services 3510 can comprise various types of cloud computingresources, such as computer servers, data storage repositories,networking resources, etc. The cloud computing services 3510 can becentrally located (e.g., provided by a data center of a business ororganization) or distributed (e.g., provided by various computingresources located at different locations, such as different data centersand/or located in different cities or countries).

The cloud computing services 3510 are utilized by various types ofcomputing devices (e.g., client computing devices), such as computingdevices 3520, 3522, and 3524. For example, the computing devices (e.g.,3520, 3522, and 3524) can be computers (e.g., desktop or laptopcomputers), mobile devices (e.g., tablet computers or smartphones), orother types of computing devices. For example, the computing devices(e.g., 3520, 3522, and 3524) can utilize the cloud computing services3510 to perform computing operators (e.g., data processing, datastorage, and the like).

16. Exemplary Implementations

Although the operations of some of the disclosed methods are describedin a particular, sequential order for convenient presentation, it shouldbe understood that this manner of description encompasses rearrangement,unless a particular ordering is required by specific language set forthbelow. For example, operations described sequentially may in some casesbe rearranged or performed concurrently. Moreover, for the sake ofsimplicity, the attached figures may not show the various ways in whichthe disclosed methods can be used in conjunction with other methods.

Any of the disclosed methods can be implemented as computer-executableinstructions stored on one or more computer-readable storage media andexecuted on a computing device (e.g., any available computing device,including smartphones or other mobile devices that include computinghardware). Computer-readable storage media are any available tangiblemedia that can be accessed within a computing system (e.g.,non-transitory computer-readable media, such as one or more opticalmedia discs, volatile memory components (such as DRAM or SRAM), ornonvolatile memory components (such as flash memory or hard drives)). Byway of example and with reference to FIG. 32, computer-readable storagemedia include memory 3220 and 3225, and storage 3240. By way of exampleand with reference to FIG. 33, computer-readable storage media includememory and storage 3320, 3322, and 3324. The term computer-readablestorage media does not include communication connections (e.g., 3270,3360, 3362, and 3364) such as signals and carrier waves.

Any of the computer-executable instructions for implementing thedisclosed techniques as well as any data created and used duringimplementation of the disclosed embodiments can be stored on one or morecomputer-readable storage media. The computer-executable instructionscan be part of, for example, a dedicated software application or asoftware application that is accessed or downloaded via a web browser orother software application (such as a remote computing application).Such software can be executed, for example, on a single local computer(e.g., any suitable commercially available computer) or in a networkenvironment (e.g., via the Internet, a wide-area network, a local-areanetwork, a client-server network (such as a cloud computing network), orother such network) using one or more network computers.

For clarity, only certain selected aspects of the software-basedimplementations are described. Other details that are well known in theart are omitted. For example, it should be understood that the disclosedtechnology is not limited to any specific computer language or program.For instance, the disclosed technology can be implemented by softwarewritten in C++, Java, Python, Perl, JavaScript, Adobe Flash, or anyother suitable programming language. Likewise, the disclosed technologyis not limited to any particular computer or type of hardware. Certaindetails of suitable computers and hardware are well known and need notbe set forth in detail in this disclosure.

It should also be well understood that any functionality describedherein can be performed, at least in part, by one or more hardware logiccomponents, instead of software. For example, and without limitation,illustrative types of hardware logic components that can be used includeField-programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs), Program-specific IntegratedCircuits (ASICs), Program-specific Standard Products (ASSPs),System-on-a-chip systems (SOCs), Complex Programmable Logic Devices(CPLDs), etc.

Furthermore, any of the software-based embodiments (comprising, forexample, computer-executable instructions for causing a computer toperform any of the disclosed methods) can be uploaded, downloaded, orremotely accessed through a suitable communication means. Such suitablecommunication means include, for example, the Internet, the World WideWeb, an intranet, software applications, cable (including fiber opticcable), magnetic communications, electromagnetic communications(including RF, microwave, and infrared communications), electroniccommunications, or other such communication means.

The disclosed methods, apparatus, and systems should not be construed aslimiting in any way. Instead, the present disclosure is directed towardall novel and unique features and aspects of the various disclosedembodiments, alone and in various combinations and sub combinations withone another. The disclosed methods, apparatus, and systems are notlimited to any specific aspect or feature or combination thereof, nor dothe disclosed embodiments require that any one or more specificadvantages be present or problems be solved.

Further potential features, operating modes and methods of using thedisclosed technology described above are disclosed below.

Hand-held device to allow interactive time coded feedback and controlwhile viewing Content and to allow multiple devices to be simultaneouslyregistered to individual profiles when watching in a group.

DVR to record broadcast content and instantaneously substitutecommercials with those matching the viewer's profile and share revenuewith the original content provider.

Smart phone and tablet applications to dynamically interact with thesystem and that allow individuals watching collectively in a group tochoose to view custom messages on their personal device as well as giveindividual feedback on shared content messages. Additionally, a sharedmessage may be more generic (e.g., a message about BMWs in general) andthis may be complemented by individually targeted messages (beforeduring or after the shared messages) delivered to each User's individualdevice that is more tailored to them (e.g., offers a specific BMW modelthat best matches their Profile).

Large screen devices which automatically register the set of Userscollectively watching content and either automatically choose to delivergroup messages on the large screen or individual messages on personaldevices or to ask for current preference of a viewing session.Alternatively, the large screen is split in two and one half of the roomwatches one side and the other half takes the other side while eachviewer gets the audio for the side appropriate for themselves deliveredby the application on their smart phone or my Wi-Fi from the largedisplay that is picked up by the individual devices. Ability to detectthe set of smart phones around a content reproducing device such as aradio in a car or on a train and know who the audience is that islistening based upon them being logged into their accounts on theirphones and know the context such as driving down the highway or stoppedin traffic or parked outside the football stadium or with strangersriding the train together but not sharing content. The phonescommunicate with each other to link together and reach agreement thatthey are in the same car traveling at the same rate and in closeproximity to each other and thus allowing the assumption that they areindeed in the same vehicle together. The set of Users viewingcollectively is used to optimize the messages being delivered to thegroup to best match each of the individual preferences of each groupmember. Filters on content may be combined such that content satisfiesall members content filters or a member may cooperate with the group andallow content outside their normal parameters but be alerted on theirphone whenever such messages are forthcoming so they can excusethemselves from the room if so desired. After their smart phone showsthem what they will earn for a particular shared ad, some members maychoose to listen on their own using headphones while others may sync upwith the group as selected on their phones or defaulted based upon theirpersonal settings. After any content delivered to a group of viewers orlisteners, their application on their phone asks directed customizedquestions about the content and indicates how much they would be paid toanswer, for example, what was most intriguing to you about thiscommercial or did you get enough information about the technical detailsof the advertised product? It might even show you an alternatecommercial and have you decide which one is more compelling.

While watching shared content, a User may choose to publish theircomments on the shared display (e.g., by sending a text with theirsmartphone that gets momentarily displayed on top of the ad and this maybe shared with the Content Producer). SyncGroups may elect to viewhighly rated comments originating in other SyncGroups viewing of thesame content during their own viewing. Users can create subtitles todescribe what a character is thinking. Advertisements can be createdwith thought bubbles to be filled in by viewers to make a game where thebest scripts wins prizes. Marketers may provide a beginning scenario toseed the game.

Users may store their favorite ads (or links to them) onto their phoneand then use their phone to send the ad to a shared display.

Ability for customers to deliver sanctioned live or pre-recordedtestimonials regarding products they have purchased to their friends andother members with similar profiles and be compensated both for deliveryand in the event a friend or similarly profiled person ends uppurchasing the product. Any such compensation can optionally be pledgedto a charity to increase the testimonial's impact. Additionally thiscompensation is shared with their audience of friends. The testimonialscan be coupled with traditional advertising messages during group sharedviewing of content. For example, a professional commercial includes aspace in its message where the testimonial is inserted midstream.

Technology to mark product placement in content or detect it when it isnot marked and either replace or eliminate it within such content. Forexample, coke is being drunk on American Idol, but this is now digitizedand you as a viewer being a Pepsi drinker see content that replaces theCoke with Pepsi through the broadcast.

Technology to automatically recognize the individuals comprising anaudience and provide content that satisfies the combined restrictions ofthe audience as a whole.

Technology to share a percentage of the revenue derived from viewing amessage with each piece of the whole technological solution that enablesthe viewing.

Technology to share loyalty card information and credit card informationis already being done by websites such as eScrip (escrip.com) anduPromise (upromise.com). The ownership and control of the informationcollected is transferred to the consumer in return for a fee paid byconsumer. To be most effective, this requires the existing collector tono longer retain the information once in is passed on.

Technology to allow configuration of triggers based upon live events tooverride camera angle being presented on broadcast stream. Technology toallow configuration of interests to override default camera angle beingpresented on broadcast stream to highlight action around one'sinterests.

Technology to consistently visualize in a small recognizable collectionof pictograms depicting scales to show how well the content beingdelivered by Arkiïs™ matches a consumer's profile interests and needsalong several dimensions. Technology to allow replacement plug-ins tooverride interest and match visualization iconography presented with allcontent delivered with Arkiïs™.

Technology to automatically adapt to the environment of the User or tothe User's stated present desires. For example, in a noisy location, thepersonal content being delivered may adapt by enabling closed captionsor switching to a different feed where the audio portion is notimportant to content message delivery. Alternatively, when the User'sfocus may not remain constant on the visual portion of message delivery,the content may adapt to messages where the audio portion is primary orwhere the visual portion may be effectively gathered when only snippetsare being viewed.

Technology to adaptively challenge the viewer to prove comprehension andidentity to ensure the integrity of the system. Identity metrics may beseamlessly gathered to reduce conscious intrusions to the viewer throughthe use of cameras and facial recognition.

Track that a User is talking on the phone while watching an ad,listening to room to hear only the ad is present, etc. to ensureintegrity measure of user watching ad. They are paid more to enablethese integrity checks.

Building a consumer marketing score based on the accuracy of theirprofile based upon external confirmation of correlating information.Details include using the person's email domain as an early indicator oftheir reliability.

To ensure the integrity of the User's participation and thus its valueto Marketers, the system may have built in measures to minimize one'sability to consistently cheat the system. Users that are deemed to belikely cheating may be penalized in their marketing score. The measuresmay include random challenge questions being presented to the User totest their knowledge of content presented. Additionally, randombiometric challenges may also be provided to ensure the User's identityis maintained. Some of the biometric challenges may be ongoing and notrequire direct User action. Failing challenge questions may cause themto be put forth more frequently while passing them may reduce theirfrequency.

Ad placement based upon viewing context such as in a group of malefriends or with spouse. Emotional location of thought, e.g. end of daykicking back. App inhibits volume maximum.

Ad placement is contextual, e.g. volume of prior commercial exit islinked with next commercial start so that the transition is more naturalby choosing commercials that transition well from one to the next, thatis, volume delta does not exceed a threshold.

Dump button during a commercial that you do not like and do not wish toview anymore.

Gestures such as taps during a commercial to give feedback as it isbeing viewed. Gestures are slowly taught to the user as popupsexplaining shortcuts.

Content can be viewed at anytime, not just coupled with TV so that youcan view content specific to your location, such as at the Mall etc.

Deduce contextual scenarios such as finding you are often meeting with 4friends on Sunday nights and thus it deduces a pattern and givescommercials that contextually fit automatically.

Go to Zumba class and get an offer to bring your friends from the classand sign up for Arkiïs™ and get the jump sport class for free and berewarded based upon how many Zumba friends sign up for and take theclass from JumpSport.

Roku uses Apple's HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) over TCP. An alternative toHLS is Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) over UDP.

Specific formulas for allotment. Revenue sharing formulas. Intention tobuy percentage likelihood to buy and track performance and tie topayout.

Table of some of the processes and to whom they apply:

Process For Whom? Record plan to make purchase (Assertion) ConsumerUpdate plan to make purchase (Assertion) Consumer Link Profiles in aSyncGroup Profile Consumer Suggest linking Profiles ConsumerConfirm/alert Profile changes Consumer Detect Consumer behaviors andpatterns (what is Consumer being viewed, where they are likely to be,etc.) Match detected behaviors and patterns to Profile Consumerpreferences Match detected behaviors across Profiles Consumer Confirmdetected status is accurate with Consumer Consumer Store Marketerbusiness information Marketer Store Marketer advertising offers MarketerConfirm Marketer availability Marketer Suggest content based on UserProfile Consumer Record purchases made Consumer Ship package anonymouslyShipper Receive package anonymously Consumer Match similar User Profilesfor purchase prediction Consumer estimated accuracy Calculate ConsumerMarketing Performance Score Consumer Target advertisements based on UserProfiles Marketer Link to third-party data Consumer Track Consumers'content viewing habits Consumer Communicate with content providers relength of Content provider commercial breaks Serve Targeted PremiumContent Consumer & Content provider Select advertisements to view fromselection Consumer Calculate which advertisements to serve Consumer“Photoshop” product placement in content based Marketer on User Profile

Another table of some of the disclosed processes and to whom they apply:

Process For Whom? Create a private Profile Consumer Create Sub Profileswithin Master Profile Consumer Create anonymous Profile for targetedadvertising Consumer Create fictitious Profile for targeted advertisingConsumer and Marketer Create fictitious Profiles within a Profile whichoverride the Consumer master Profile Select portions of a Profile tomake public Consumer Select portions of a Profile to hide ConsumerAccess viewing history Consumer Provide different tiers of access toConsumers Arkiis ™ Staff Grant Consumer referral bonuses Staff,Consumers Proving identity to use a service Consumer Linking provenidentity to a Profile provided by a service Consumer Electronicallyvoting in the governance of a system Consumer Linking separate Profilescreated by a Consumer Consumer Linking separate Profiles of multipleConsumers into an online Consumers group Providing targetedadvertisement to an electronically created Marketers, Consumers groupCreating and maintaining a group Profile Consumers Parental settingscontrolling privacy of minors online Consumers Discrete, combinablelevels of group privacy settings Consumers Electronic forms of mutualconsent Consumers Register grocery loyalty cards to reflect purchasingdecisions Consumers Register credit cards to reflect purchasingdecisions Consumers Register online purchasing accounts to reflectpurchasing Consumers decisions Integration of external websites toreceive recommendations Consumers Text message confirmation from awebsite Consumers Email notifications from a website ConsumersFunctionality to edit website fields through text message data ConsumersAnalysis of past Consumer activity data for targeted Consumersadvertisements Analysis of data from smartphone microphone for targetedConsumers advertisement Analysis of data from GPS data for targetedadvertisement Consumers Analysis of smartphone accelerometer data fortargeted Consumers advertisement Analysis of biometric data from smartwearable devices for Consumers targeted advertisement Electronic creditsin exchange for a purchase through credit card Consumers data Electroniccredits in exchange for a purchase online Consumers Consumeridentification barcodes Consumers Supply website credentials to receivecredits for a third-party Consumers purchase Create a Profile for abusiness for targeted advertisement Consumers Administrator privilegesover other accounts of a social network Consumers Anonymous shippingthrough randomly generated address “nodes” Consumers, Mail deliveryEncrypted shipping, sender/recipient data Consumers, Mail deliveryAnonymous online feedback Consumers Consumer-generated Profile for theintent of receiving targeted Consumers advertising Method of predictingand altering a Consumer's performance score Consumers Method of using aconsumer performance score to predict future System purchases Method ofmapping a store's contents and item prices through Consumers UPC, QRcodes

The term Arkiïs™ is a trademarked name. It is used herein to refer to anexemplary system. A commercially available implementation of Arkiïs™ maydiffer from the exemplary system described herein in form, function,and/or name.

17. Advertising and Fulfillment System

Embodiments disclosed herein recognize that the more closely a personguards their private information, the more value it is to them.Retailers and advertisers will pay to gain that information, and alreadydo, but the customer does not see any of that money. Where does it go?Clearing houses, search engine companies, and publicly tradedcorporations. Embodiments disclosed herein permit an individual'sinformation to be controlled in a manner to permit the individual to bepaid for usage of that information.

The disclosed system is constructed as a coop, owned by its users. Thus,any profit generated that is not fed back into the growth of the companyis distributed among its members, the end users. This can also encouragenetworking through bonuses and such.

The disclosed system is constructed as a coop (or a standard corporationor a hybrid of the two), owned in a greater of lesser degree by itsusers (and investors, in the latter cases). Thus, some portion of profitgenerated that is not fed back into the growth of the company isdistributed among its members, the end users. A hybrid of the twoinvolves stock but as value increases they reach a threshold, andeverything above that line goes back/can be bought back by the coop.

As shown in FIG. 36, when signing up for the system, the end userdownloads a profile generator to the hard drive 3605, 3606, 3607 and acustomizable profile is securely stored for use by the engine. A key tothis profile is that it is completely up to the individual user how muchinformation to provide. There are NO required fields except for the moststandard information to set up a deposit/credit account with the system.Beyond this, any information provided by the end user performs two mainfunctions:

-   -   1. Enhances his click value to the advertiser, thus increasing        the amount of money the user will make off of each click.    -   2. Increases the relevance of the advertisements shown in        response to each keyword, potentially saving the user the time        and energy of browsing by pointing him more directly towards        what he wants.

Once created, the user profile is uploaded to the cooperative's userprofile database 3611. However, this profile database 3611 is dynamic,and any alterations the user wishes to make to the desktop profile willautomatically upload to the online user profile database 3611.

Once created, the user profile is uploaded to the coop's user profiledatabase and formulates a number to place them within a range of peoplewithin the database. That number defines how that user will be shown tothe advertiser as buying potential. However, this profile database isdynamic, and any alterations the user wishes to make to the desktopprofile will automatically upload to the online user profile database.This can be limited by honesty/normalcy tolerances provided by theCooperative.

The search engine page 3700 has a standard, simple search engineinterface 3720 for use as a standard search engine. It also has a userlogin option 3710 on the side. A user can only make money when he islogged into the system. Auto-login of some kind may be provided alongwith the system browser, password storage and homepage.

As seen in FIG. 38, once logged in, the user can get paid while browsing3822, as well as manage a completely self-sufficient online bankingsystem 3820 to add another level of security to online transactions byfiltering them all through the system. The online retailer no longerobtains any information from the end user during the transaction becausethe purchase is paid for using credits 3826 and paid out through thesystem 3830. This further protects the end user from unsuspectinglygiving out personal information and compels retailers/advertisers tojoin the system, because otherwise they cannot gather information aboutthe types of users buying their products.

How the account online banking system works: a credit account comesautomatically with signup to track credits earned through browsing;users can purchase additional credits 3810 to be used on any onlinetransaction (protecting information from retailer and verifyingfollow-through conversion on keyword search intentions, as well asboosting click quality); a credit card can be ordered to use U-Dollarsin physical transactions (also verifies purchases from “Brick & Mortar”retailers, boosts click quality).

Turning back to FIG. 37, the search bar 3722, 3724 resembles any othersearch engine. As seen in FIG. 39, beneath the search bar, however, is alist of possible intentions 3900 that the user can click to tailor thesearch results and advertisements to his needs for that keyword search:Definite Buyer 3910 (Brick and Mortar buyer 3920 increases click valueto local advertisers, decreases to others 3922), Potential Buyer3930/Price Comparison (time frames to estimate when it will be bought3932), Research to Buy 3940 (increases appeal to informational sites3942), Just Browsing, Rather Not Say 3950 (advertisers will determinetheir own Max CPC (cost per click) for unspecified users just likestandard search engines 3952).

Turning back to FIG. 37, after an intention 3740 is specified and thekeyword search 3722 is submitted, the results 3760 are organizedaccording to a user-specified ranking of factors. The advertisementresults are dynamic columns that can be reorganized and reranked 3750by:

-   -   Click Value (amount that advertisers are willing to pay for your        click 3705 determined by advertiser, but based on specificity        and details of user profile),    -   Relevancy (as determined by normal search engine relevancy),    -   Product Price (if specific product),    -   Focus Spectrum (popularity among group of similar users, as        specified by end user according to interests, income,        demographic, etc.)

The ads displayed in response to a search query 3760 have a fewadditional features 3770 compared to other search engine advertisements.Underneath the standard ad display, the system's ads display: clickvalue 3772, Focus Spectrum statistics 3774, 3776.

The Focus Spectrum is one of the most dynamic and uniquely appealingaspects of the search engine. In the profile generator, users specifynot only their personal information, but the range of interests to whichthey would like their ads tailored. For example, a high-income usermight want to only view ads for high-end consumer products. Rather thanallow the advertiser to determine what the user wants to see, the engineuses a statistical grouping formula to determine other users withsimilar profiles in the specified area. Thus, a high-income user whoselects income as a key focus spectrum factor sees the click andpurchase choices of other high-income users displayed beneath theadvertisements. The statistics show the percentage of similar users whodecided to click on the product 3774 and the smaller percentage thatfollowed through with a conversion 3776.

The user also specifies the range of the Focus Spectrum to narrow orbroaden the focus group. A simple focus statistics toolbar 3730 abovethe listing of advertisements has a customizable percentage that jumpsbetween discrete amounts 3734 to change the range of the focus group. Asthe user expands or restricts the focus group size, the enginerecalculates the relevancy of advertisements and adjusts their rankingsaccordingly.

All of the ads displayed in response to search queries are preapprovedand within the network 3610 to ensure end user privacy in allclick-throughs from a search. Our software/transfer page interface 3615checks for cookies on landing sites to prevent pages within the adnetwork from tracking end users.

Click Value

A user's click value directly affects the amount that a user is offeredby advertisers for clicking on an ad 3800. The click value is based on:click quality—loosely determined by: (# of conversions)/(# ofclicks)×100%, demographic, income level, interests, geographic location,search intentions, any other profile information that the end user mayprovide.

The click quality formula shows that the longer a user browses withoutmaking any purchases or other types of advertiser-defined conversions(leads, signups, page views, etc.), the lower the user's quality scoredrops. Clicks always have an integer value (1 click=1 ad). Conversionshave variable values, not necessarily integers. For example: Sale=1,Newsletter/Subscription=0.5, Lead (request for follow-up call)=0.75,Page View (length of visit)=0.05×(# of pages viewed after landing page),No Action=0.

Each advertiser can specify what aspects of a user's profile mostenhance the click value to that advertiser. Thus, advertisers can targetdemographics, income levels, interests, geographic locations, and searchintentions to fit their specific product or goal, but only for eachindividual end user insofar as that user supplies the information.However, the advertiser cannot obtain the identity of the specific enduser. This is a part of the security promise of the system.

The advertiser can never obtain the identity of the specific end userunless the user agrees to provide some personal info. This is crucial tothe security promise of the system.

Focus Spectrum

The focus spectrum uses complex statistical analysis of end user profiledata to quantify the similarity of two users. The end user specifieswhat similarities are most important to him or her, and each keywordsearch groups other user data accordingly. The focus spectrum can beshifted based on: Income, Demographic, Interests/Hobbies, Geographiclocation (IP address), Conversion Rate (Frequent Buyer, OccasionalBuyer, Brick and Mortar Buyer, Rare Buyer) 3732.

One or more factors can be selected to filter the advertisements evenmore thoroughly. For example, let's say an 18 year old female issearching for digital cameras online. The focus spectrum uses thegroupings according to her demographic (e.g. 16-20) and expressedinterest in professional photography to quantify the relevancy of theadvertisements based on other similar users. The resulting ad rankingsdisplay the advertisements for higher-end cameras that garnered the mostclick-throughs and conversions among the 16-20 year old demographic. Ifshe wanted to expand the search to high-end digital cameras among allages, she can deselect 3736 the demographic factor and focus solely onthe most popular and successful advertisements among those with aninterest in professional photography.

The value of an end user's click may be listed underneath the ad, whichstates the amount paid to get through and the determined relevancyfactor.

The Focus Spectrum is based on statistical data about other users withsimilar profiles. Personalized data provides information on otherconversion profiles, using variable matching (within 5%, 10%, etc.).Users may also be paid bonuses for survey information in addition toclick/conversion dollars, and also may be paid lead bonuses—newsletters,subscriptions, etc.

Advertisement Matrix

Customizable advertisement ranking is a more robust targeting mechanismfor the end user, not the advertiser. It allows the viewing ofstatistics for other buyers without revealing the identity of thoseother buyers. A user can prioritize ad rankings by price (thatadvertisers are willing to pay for your click), relevancy, FocusSpectrum (based on end user-specified group of similar users),interests, and intention (serious buyer, research, etc.)

18. Privacy

Advertisers 4020 see only delivery numbers for UPS 4022, not personalbuyer information. As shown in FIG. 40, complete self-sufficient bankingonline allows complete anonymity: the end user 4000 buys online creditthrough a credit card, spends the credit on online products 4002, theretailer ships to UPS, and UPS ships to a local address 4004 based on aunique scan code 4030 which changes with every transaction.

A time-dependent click value is a model for checking the veracity of auser's click intention. For example, if claiming “Definite Buyer,” theuser will be paid the full amount promised by the advertiser only ifthey follow through with a conversion within the given time frame. Ifthe user does not follow through, the initial $X paid for the amountwill be cut to a fraction determined by the advertiser. Retailers canalso choose not to cut cost no matter what, to enhance their ad's appealto the end user.

Only advertisements for pages within the cooperative ad group arelisted, for a completely sheltered coop bubble. Advertisers must minortheir sites into our system for approval and ad listing 3612, whichensures end user 3600 privacy protection. The required softwareinterface 3615 stops other advertisers 3621, 3622, 3623 from placingcookies unknowingly on users.

Factors in Determining User Quality Score

Click quality=conversions/clicks. Time- and keyword-specific searchpurposes are specified for each keyword search by a selection underneaththe search toolbar.

The matching of users with relevant advertisers has a general formulabased on the user-specified profile. With each keyword search, theengine uses a combination of overall click value and more significantand targeted keyword-specific click value to determine how much theadvertiser is willing to pay.

The first factor in matching the user with relevant and interestedadvertisers is relevancy, which is based on:

-   -   the user-specified interests (advertisers create a similar        interest page when creating an advertisement to select which        users they would like to see their ads),    -   the keyword itself (functions like a normal search engine, but        combined with the other unique relevancy factors in determining        the overall relevancy of ads),    -   income level (for example, a high-end user would most likely buy        camping supplies from REI than Target, and REI may pay more for        the advertisement),    -   demographic (certain companies sell the same products but target        different age groups),    -   geographic location (local businesses that do not sell online or        ship products are only concerned with local customers, based on        IP address or user profile)

The relevant advertisers then scale the user based on the user'sself-expressed/determined buying potential (ex. “I promise to buy within3 clicks”; “Frequent Buyer”; etc.), click value (performance history),keyword-specific click value (performance history within thekeyword-specified area).

User profile numbers can be 100 digits long or more, where only specificdigits apply to each advertiser (i.e. there is a number for campingspecifically).

A matching system joins two people together; we want to join the buyerand advertiser. It includes not just user-defined information, butperformance-based info (“I promise to buy within the first 3 clicks”).

Rating sites by other users: a user can select to show results with onlycertain ratings. The click value scales the maximum cost per click. Ratedifferent aspects of advertisers to tailor business to end userpreference.

Focus Spectrum Expanded

Certain factors come into play more often than others. For example,geographic location is a much less significant factor than income,especially when searching for computer hardware, per se. The geographiclocation may come into play much more when searching for sleeping bags.In this way, the combination and weight of the different qualifiers increating a focus spectrum for each individual search is dynamic andlargely dependent on the keyword itself.

The number derived from the focus spectrum is the Relevancy Factor ofthe ad for those within the spectrum. This percentage is displayedunderneath each advertisement to show how relevant other users thoughtthat advertisement to be. The percentage is based not solely onclick-throughs, but also on conversions. A conversion is worthsignificantly more than a click-through. Accordingly, the numbergenerated, although a percentage, is not solely (clicks)/(impressions)for the focus group. It may look something more like[(clicks)+100*(conversions)]/(impressions).

For a definite buyer, (conversions)/(clicks) for the focus spectrum maybe more useful information.

FIG. 41 is a flowchart of a particular system for purchasing goodsonline. The end user signs up for the system and downloads software foruse on a local computer. The user then uses the software to create acustomized profile, which may include one or more of demographicinformation, income level, interests/hobbies, geographic location, typeof buyer, and search intentions. The user then uploads the customizedprofile to a database.

As described in FIG. 42, the system assigns an initial Click Value 4210to the user based on profile information. The customized profile is alsoused to determine Focus Spectrum Statistics, which encompasses the rangeof interests for the ads that the user will view.

The user then logs in to the system and selects an intention, specifyinga choice of definite buyer, potential buyer, research to buy, justbrowsing or rather not say. The user then performs standard keywordsearches for items and the system returns advertisement results based onthe Focus Spectrum Statistics, Click Value, relevancy and product price.The user then has a yes/no choice to rerank the results based on any ofthese factors. Choosing yes allows the user to rerank the results andobtain a new set of advertisement results based on the user's choice.Choosing no allows the user to continue to make a purchasing decision.Depending on the nature of a purchasing decision, the system assigns aconversion value.

Purchasing decision information is used to adjust the Click Value. Apositive performance adds to Click Quality and a negative performancesubtracts from Click Quality. These Click Quality values are then usedto adjust the user's Click Value 4220, 4230.

The system described herein can also be implemented through interactivetelevision or radio, particularly via satellite television and radiosystems and cable television systems.

19. Alternative Advertising and Fulfillment System

When signing up and/or enrolling for the disclosed system as seen inFIG. 41, a customizable profile is securely stored for use by thesystem's engine. In one embodiment, the end user downloads a profilegenerator to the hard drive.

A key to this profile is that it is completely up to the individual userhow much information to provide. There are NO required fields except forthe most standard information to set up a deposit/credit account throughthe system.

Beyond this, any information provided by the end user performs two mainfunctions:

-   -   1. Enhances the user's Click Value to the advertiser, thus        increasing the amount of money the user will make off of each        click.    -   2. Increases the relevance of the advertisements shown in        response to each keyword, potentially saving the user the time        and energy of browsing by pointing him more directly towards        what he wants.

Once created, the user profile is uploaded to the system's user profiledatabase. This profile database is dynamic, so any alterations the userwishes to make to the desktop profile will automatically upload to theonline user profile database, ensuring that the user's Click Value staysup to date.

In one embodiment, the system is constructed as a cooperative, so usersown their own data and the system's members own the system. Thus, anyprofit generated that is not fed back into the growth of the company isdistributed among its members, the end users.

In other embodiments, the system is constructed as a standardcorporation, owned in a greater or lesser degree by its users andinvestors. Thus, in these embodiments, some portion of profit generatedthat is not fed back into the growth of the company is distributed amongits members, the end users. In yet another embodiment, the system is ahybrid between a cooperative and a standard corporation. For example,stock can be owned by investors, but as the value of the companyincreases and reaches a threshold, any additional value goes back to thecooperative, or can be bought by the cooperative.

The system's search engine page has a standard, simple search engineinterface for use as a standard search engine. It also has a user loginoption on the side. A user can only make money when he is logged intothe system.

The system's search bar resembles any other search engine. Beneath thesearch bar, however, is a list of possible intentions that the user canclick to tailor the advertisements, and in some embodiments the searchresults, to his needs for that keyword search. In one embodiment, theseintentions comprise: Definite Buyer, Brick and Mortar buyer (increasesClick Value to local advertisers, decreases to others), PotentialBuyer/Price Comparison (user discloses a time frame to estimate when anitem will be bought), Research to Buy (increases Click Value toinformational sites), Just Browsing, Rather Not Say. For a ‘Rather NotSay buyer, advertisers may determine their own Max CPC (cost per click)for unspecified users just like standard search engines.

After prompting the user to specify an intention and receiving theuser's keyword search, the results are organized according to, in someembodiments, a user-specified ranking of factors. The advertisementresults may be dynamic columns that can be reorganized and reranked byfactors including: Click Value (amount that advertisers are willing topay a user for their click, determined by the advertiser and based onspecificity and details of a user's profile), relevancy (as determinedby normal search engine relevancy), product price (if the user issearching for a specific product), Intention (serious buyer, research,etc.), Rating (site and/or advertiser rating by other end users) andFocus Spectrum (popularity among group of similar users as specified byend user according to, for example: interests, income, and/ordemographic.)

In some embodiments, the first factor in matching the user with relevantand interested advertisers is relevancy, which may be based on: theuser-specified interests (advertisers create a similar interest pagewhen creating an advertisement to select which users they would like tosee their advertisements), the keyword itself (the system functions likea normal search engine, but combined with the other unique relevancyfactors in determining the overall relevancy of advertisements) incomelevel (for example, a high-end user would more likely buy campingsupplies from REI than Target, and REI may pay more for theadvertisement), demographic (for example, certain companies sell thesame products but target different age groups), geographic location(local businesses that do not sell online or ship products are onlyconcerned with local customers; location may be based on IP address orthe user's profile)

This provides a more robust targeting mechanism for the end user, notthe advertiser. Furthermore, it makes transparent the behind-the-scenesworkings of Google and other search engines. The user-specifiedadvertisement ranking feature allows an end user to view statistics forother buyers without revealing the identity of those other buyers.

Privacy

The system will only list advertisements for pages within thecooperative advertising group, creating a completely shelteredcooperative bubble. Advertisers must minor their sites into the systemfor approval and advertisement listing, to ensure the end user's privacyprotection.

All of the advertisements displayed in response to search queries arepreapproved and hosted within the network to ensure end user privacy inall click-throughs from a search through the system's search engine. Thesoftware/transfer page interface may check for cookies on landing sitesto stop other advertisers from placing cookies unknowingly on users,preventing pages within the advertisement network from tracking endusers.

Once logged in, the user can manage an online banking account. Thisaccount works as a completely self-sufficient online banking system toadd another level of security to online transactions by filtering eachtransaction through the system. The online retailer no longer obtainsany information from the end user during the transaction because the enduser completes purchases through the system using the end user'scredits, and the retailer is paid through the system. The filtering ofeach transaction by routing it through the system further protects theend user from unsuspectingly giving out personal information and compelsretailers/advertisers to join the system, because otherwise they cannotgather information about the types of users buying their products.

In some preferred embodiments, user profile numbers can be, for example,100 digits long or more, where only specific digits apply to eachadvertiser. For example, there may be a number for camping specifically,which is embedded within the long profile number.

In a preferred embodiment, the online banking system automaticallygrants each user a credit account upon signup with the disclosed system,which may be linked to the user profile number. This credit accountallows users to track the money they have earned through browsing aswell as other conversions. Users may purchase additional account creditto be used on any online transaction. The use of credit for purchasesprotects the privacy of end user information from the retailer (by onlyidentifying, for example, a portion of a user's profile number),verifies follow-through conversion on keyword search intentions, andboosts Click Quality. In some embodiments, a credit card can be orderedto use the account's credit in physical transactions. The credit cardcan be used to verify purchases from brick & mortar retailers, boostingClick Quality.

To ensure anonymity, advertisers may see only delivery numbers fordelivery services including UPS, not personal buyer info. In someembodiments, retailers ship packages to UPS, and UPS fulfills a purchaseby shipping the package to an end user's local address based on a uniquescan code. In some embodiments, this code changes with everytransaction.

The advertisements displayed in response to a search query contain moreinformation relevant to the end user's search needs compared to othersearch engine advertisements. Underneath the standard advertisementdisplay, advertisements within the system display values including theClick Value, as well as Focus Spectrum statistics.

Click Value

A user's Click Value directly affects the amount that an end user isoffered by advertisers for clicking on an advertisement. In someembodiments, the Click Value is the monetary value an end user is paidfor clicking on an advertisement. Each advertiser can specify whataspects of a user's profile most enhance the Click Value to thatadvertiser. Thus, advertisers can target users within demographics,income levels, interests, geographic locations, and search intentions tofit their specific product or goal, but only target each individual enduser insofar as that user supplies the information. Still, theadvertiser cannot obtain the identity of any specific end user. This isa part of the security promise of the disclosed system.

The Click Value is based on, for example: Click Quality (which in someembodiments, may be determined by: (# of conversions)/(# ofclicks)×100%), user demographic, income level, interests, geographiclocation, search intentions, and/or any other profile information thatthe end user may provide which matches the advertiser's preferences.

Purchasing decision information is then used to adjust the Click Value.A positive performance adds to Click Quality and a negative performancesubtracts from Click Quality. These Click Quality values are then usedto adjust the user's Click Value.

The Click Quality formula shows that the more a user browses withoutmaking any purchases or other types of advertiser-defined conversions(leads, signups, page views, etc.), the lower the user's quality scoredrops. In a preferred embodiment, clicks always have an integer value (1click=1 advertisement). In some embodiments, conversions have variablevalues, not necessarily integers. In one embodiment, the weight ofvarious conversions may be: Sale=1, Newsletter/Subscription=0.5, Lead(request for follow-up call)=0.75, Page View (length of visit)=0.05×(#of pages viewed after landing page), No Action=0.

Search Intention

The Search Intention is used to tailor the advertisements, and in someembodiments the search results, to a user's purchase plans for a keywordsearch.

In one embodiment, a list of possible Search Intentions comprises one ormore of: Definite Buyer, Potential Buyer/Price Comparison, Brick &Mortar Buyer, Research to Buy, Just Browsing, Rather Not Say.

In a preferred embodiment, the Click Value is time dependent. Thisprovides a model for checking the veracity of an end user's SearchIntention. For example, if a user claims “Definite Buyer” as a searchintention, the user may be paid the full amount promised by theadvertiser only if they follow through with a conversion within a giventime frame. If the user does not follow through, the initial $X paid forthe amount may be cut to a fraction determined by the advertiser. Insome embodiments, the retailer can also choose not to cut payout nomatter what to enhance their advertisement's appeal to the end user.

In one preferred embodiment, if a user claims “Brick and Mortar Buyer”as a Search Intention, the user's Click Value is increased for localadvertisers and decreased for other advertisers.

In another preferred embodiment, if a user claims “PotentialBuyer”/“Price Comparison” as a Search Intention, the user is prompted todisclose a time frame to estimate when an item will be bought.

In another preferred embodiment, if a user claims “Research to Buy” as aSearch Intention, the user's Click Value is increased to informationalsites.

In another preferred embodiment, if a user claims “Rather Not Say”buyer, advertisers may determine their own Max CPC (cost per click) forunspecified users just like standard search engines.

Focus Spectrum

The Focus Spectrum is one of the most dynamic and uniquely appealingaspects of the system's search engine. In their profile, users specifynot only their personal information, but the range of demographicvariables to which they would like their advertisements tailored. Forexample, a high-income user might want to only view advertisements forhigh-end consumer products. Rather than allow the advertiser todetermine what the user wants to see, the engine uses a statisticalgrouping formula to determine other users with similar profiles in thespecified area, quantifying the similarity of a plurality of users. Theend user specifies what similarities are most important to him or her,and each keyword search groups results based on other user dataaccordingly. The Focus Spectrum can be shifted based on factorsincluding: income, demographic, interests/hobbies, geographic location(IP address), conversion rate (in some embodiments, users may be denotedas, for example, Frequent Buyer, Occasional Buyer, Brick and MortarBuyer, Rare Buyer) The statistics show the percentage of similar userswho decided to click on the product and the smaller percentage thatfollowed through with a conversion. For example, a high-income user whoselects income as a key Focus Spectrum factor sees the click andpurchase choices of other high-income users displayed beneath theadvertisements.

The user also specifies the range of the Focus Spectrum to narrow orbroaden the focus group. In a preferred embodiment, a simple focusstatistics toolbar above the listing of advertisements has acustomizable percentage that jumps between discrete amounts to changethe range of the focus group. In one embodiment, a user may specify thatprofile variables relevant to the Focus Spectrum must match within 5%,10%, etc. As the user expands or restricts the focus group size, theengine may recalculate the relevancy of advertisements and adjust theirrankings accordingly.

One or more factors can be modified to filter the advertisements throughthe controls offered by the Focus Spectrum. For example, let's say an 18year old female is searching for digital cameras online. The FocusSpectrum uses the groupings according to her demographic (16-20, forexample) and expressed interest in professional photography to quantifythe relevancy of the advertisements based on other similar users. Theresulting advertisement rankings display the advertisements forhigher-end cameras that garnered the most click-throughs and conversionsamong the 16-20 year old demographic. If she wanted to expand the searchto high-end digital cameras among all ages, she can deselect thedemographic factor and focus solely on the most popular and successfuladvertisements among those with an interest in professional photography.

In some embodiments, certain factors come into play more often thanothers. For example, geographic location may be a much less significantfactor than income, especially when searching for computer hardware, forexample. The geographic location may come into play much more whensearching for sleeping bags. In such embodiments, the combination andweight of the different qualifiers in creating a Focus Spectrum for eachindividual search are dynamic and largely dependent on the keyworditself.

In yet another embodiment, the number derived from the Focus Spectrum isthe Relevancy Factor of the advertisement for those within the spectrum.This percentage is displayed underneath each advertisement to show howrelevant other users thought that advertisement to be. The percentage isbased not solely on click-throughs, but also on conversions. Aconversion is worth significantly more than a click-through.Accordingly, the number generated, although a percentage, is not solely(clicks)/(impressions) for the focus group. It may look something morelike [(clicks)+100*(conversions)]/(impressions) For a definite buyer,(conversions)/(clicks) for the Focus Spectrum may be more usefulinformation.

In some embodiments, the system described herein can also be implementedthrough interactive television or radio, particularly via satellitetelevision and radio systems and cable television systems.

20. Providing Customized Entertainment Content

FIG. 43A is an overview flow chart that illustrates a sports game beingrecorded via various feeds showing different perspectives of the game.The feeds correspond to video feeds received from a variety of sourcesthat may include one or more of each of Fixed Camera 43-210, PlayerMounted Camera 43-220, Flying Drone Camera 43-230, and announcersCommentary Camera 43-240. Each camera provides a video feed to VideoMixer 43-300 that outputs a Broadcast Feed 43-400 into whichconventional commercial messages may be inserted such as at the nationalor affiliate level. Video Mixer 43-300 also provides secondary videofeeds (43-410, 43-420, 43-430, 43-440, 43-450, etc.) to the servers(e.g. Arkiïs™ servers) along with their associated metadata. Thesesecondary feeds act as alternatives to the traditional Broadcast Feed43-400 and may include subcomponents (e.g. various video, sound, andspecial effects sources) out of which Broadcast Feed 43-400 is composed.The conventional Broadcast Feed 43-400 may be created by a variety ofconventional techniques in Mixer 43-300, including manual and/orautomated techniques, (e.g. through the use of a Video Mixer (alsocalled vision mixer, video switcher, or production switcher) that workswith a plurality of Serial Digital Interfaces (SDI) or through the useof a Non-Linear Video Editing System (NLVE)). Examples of video editingand mixing techniques may be found in the 2010 work entitled “MasteringMultiCamera Techniques: From Preproduction to Editing and Deliverables”by Mitch Jacobson or the 2014 book “Broadcast Engineer's Reference Book”edited by Edwin Paul J. Tozer. The secondary feeds may themselves alsobe the output of Mixer 43-300 and may take the form of raw pass-throughfeeds of individual Cameras and/or more refined or polished feeds thatcombine different camera angles, commentary, special effects overlays,etc. into a single composition analogous to Broadcast Feed 43-400 butreflect a different style or intent (e.g. a greater focus an aparticular player, position, or team). Such feeds are transmitted to theArkiïs™ servers for storage and concurrent and/or subsequent retrievaland/or broadcast to interested Users. Transmission of such feeds may becoupled with metadata from additional Alternate Feeds 43-460 that mayinclude data that describe scoring data/activity, player statisticalinformation, referee information, clock data, team information, andvenue data. Additional Feeds may originate local to the vicinity of theSports field and/or from outside/non-vicinity sources such as byintegration with Elias Sports Bureau database, by reading a customizedfeed from STATS LLC, or by reading a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation)feed such as the one that powers NFL.com's live GameCenter and thatupdates in realtime while a game is being played and is finalized upongame completion or subsequent correction. Additional alternate feeds43-460 may include video feed metadata to annotate subject matter beingshown, source or perspective of video feed, camera operator, clockactivity event points (e.g. clock start/stop or reaching halfway point),scoring activity event begin and end points (e.g. turnovers, fieldgoals, first downs, or ball snap), etc.

FIG. 43A shows an array of feeds 43-400 through 43-460 in a single game.The actual cardinality of said feeds 43-400 through 43-460 may varyduring a game as the number of cameras or other sources may change overtime. At any give time, the Arkiïs™ servers may be receiving array offeeds 43-400 through 43-460 from multiple games transpiringsimultaneously. Additionally there may be multiple interactive videostreams 43-740 (to be described further in connection with FIG. 43B) fora User 43-600, due to, for example, a User having more than one FantasySports Team (e.g. two Fantasy Football Teams and one Fantasy BaseballTeam).

FIG. 43B is a flow diagram that illustrates reception of the variousvideo and data feeds depicted in FIG. 43A and stored in the Arkiïs™Content Databases 43-510 within database engine 43-505 for whichadditional detail is provided in FIG. 43J. (The use of multimedia indatabases can be found in the literature, such as the 2014 book“Multimedia Database Retrieval—Technology and Applications” by PaisarnMuneesawang et al.) The functions shown in FIG. 43B may be implementedas part of the Arkiïs™ system that operates in conjunction with existingvideo delivery systems or integrated as noted previously in paragraph[068] within and among the devices and systems that provide Content toFirst Devices. An Arkiïs™ User 43-600 creates a request for a customfeed that is provided as a query to database engine 43-505 that includestheir Profile Identifier (e.g. a unique identifier used to specify theidentify of their Profile in the Arkiïs™ system and allow their specificProfile to be queried for details), Preferences and/or additionalinformation such as their Fantasy Football Team player identifiers. Suchquery results in a set of Ranked Query Results of Video Clips 43-1000that represent those video clips and associated metadata for portion(s)of plays 43-560 from recent football games that correspond to theArkiïs™ User's Fantasy Football Team members, their current opponent'sand/or other SyncGroup members' team members. The query results areselected to conform to the Profile preferences of the User, for example,whether they prefer wide-angle shots of passing plays or close-ups ofthe pass and reception, whether they prefer a focus on defensive playersover offensive ones, whether they wish to view snippets containing justtheir player's actions, or the whole play context around their player'sactions, and/or whether they wish to only review plays not previouslyconsumed and thus not yet billed via Billing Engine 43-900 as registeredin Arkiïs™ Content Databases 43-510, etc. The Ranked Query Results areprovided to the Viewing Engine 43-700 (for which additional detail isprovided in FIG. 43F) for coalescing 43-710, composition and ordering43-720 into a pleasing narrative 43-730 to create interactive videostream 43-740 that adheres to the Profile preferences of the Arkiïs™User. Such narrative may be automatically composed by the application ofArkiïs™ User Profile rules in the Viewing Engine 43-700. The resultantcustomized interactive video stream 43-740 may include (such as by acustom Annotation Component 43-574) the running Fantasy Football scorethat results as each replay unfolds to create excitement as analogouslyfound in the narrative of a real football game. The interactive videostream 43-740 may also include injury reports for players that arebenched, possibly together with a play (or portion thereof) in which theplayer was injured. The stream may be optimized for delivery to a mobiledevice. The Arkiïs™ User may provide additional metadata tagging 43-800upon such replay clips within interactive video stream 43-740 to add,refine and/or correct tagging information for which the Billing Engine43-900 may credit their account for providing tagging and/or debit theiraccount for replays consumed (viewed) and deposit such tagging intoArkiïs™ Content Databases 43-510. Play tagging may be partially orcompletely automated in 43-850 by the application of computerrecognition, search, and other algorithms (such as described in the 2013IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence paper“Learning to Track and Identify Players from Broadcast Sports Videos” byWei-Lwun Lu et al., the 2015 book “Computer Vision in Sports” edited byThomas B. Moeslund et al., the 2010 book “Advances in SpeechRecognition: Mobile Environments, Call Centers and Clinics” edited byAmy Neustein, the 2011 book “Recent Advances in Robust SpeechRecognition Technology” by Javier Ramírez et al. or the 2011 book“Robust Speech Recognition of Uncertain or Missing Data: Theory andApplications” edited by Dorothea Kolossa et al.) to add, refine, and/orcorrect player identifications, play activity, and other tagginginformation for storage addition to Arkiïs™ Content Databases 43-510 andBilling Engine 43-900 credit. Such automated recognition systems may beaided and made more accurate by equipping players with individuallyidentifiable and remotely trackable devices such as RFID chips/tags orremote miniature GPS tracking devices. By adding a tracking device tothe ball under play in a sports game, the computer can automaticallyrecognize who has possession or is passing and/or receiving the ball. Atracking device identifier may be associated with either the playerwearing it or the ball itself according to where the device associatedwith the identifier is affixed. In such fashion the tracking of thedevice may be assigned to the player or ball to whom it is associated.Such tracking may be time coded and transmitted with a tracked player'sidentifier as part of Alternate feeds 43-460 for storage in Arkiïs™Content Databases for subsequent use, such as for tagging players infeeds, detecting who has possession of the ball, and collectingstatistics such as yards run. Such collected ball tracking data canprovide guidance to automate video camera tracking of a sports game suchthat a camera automatically follows the action of play by automaticaiming based upon the tracked location it is assigned to follow. Inaddition to trackable devices, players and/or the ball, can be paintedwith special paints to create computer recognizable markings thatradiate in non-visible regions of infra-red or ultra-violet such thatvideo cameras that detect these non-visible markings can more readilyidentify players and/or the ball. Existing visible light cameras may beequipped with parallel cameras to record in these non-visiblefrequencies, or alternatively, sensor data for the additionalfrequencies may be embedded within the digital sensors of cameras andprovide additional data beyond RGB channels for the non-visible lightdata collected. Additional video feeds may be created for the infraredand/or ultra-violet camera output for post-processing. AdditionalFantasy Football statistics may be gathered about a player by theirwearing such a trackable device that may be used to measure activitycomputed from their position over time including, distance traversed onthe field, maximum velocity, average velocity, acceleration, time on andoff the field of play, etc.

FIGS. 43C, 43D, and 43E provide an example of the contents that may becontained in interactive video stream 43-740. FIGS. 43C, 43D and 43Eeach illustrate a play of a football game that contains at least oneplayer selected by a User 43-600 as part of a Fantasy Football Team. InFantasy Football, Contestants, such as User 43-600, group together toform a league and compete throughout the NFL season. Being ardent fans,these Contestants are regular viewers of NFL games and in particular ofthe games involving their selected players. At times their players maybe simultaneously playing in a plurality of games and User 43-600 maydesire to consume (e.g. view) all of the plays (or portion(s) thereof)involving their selected players, wherein their players are attributedFantasy Football scoring events, in as close to realtime as possible,automatically switching between a plurality of games, possibly treatingone game as preferred when none of their players are currently involvedin a play, and thus that game's content being provided (selected) bydefault. For example, stream selector 3000 may receive multipleinteractive video streams 43-740 from viewing engine 43-700, suchstreams corresponding to either live broadcast stream 3070 or staticstored stream 3071, resulting from multiple invoke notification callback43-950. Stream selector 3000 may thus automatically switch between aplurality of games/feeds/streams, switching from the preferredgame/feed/stream that may be a live broadcast stream 3070 that may bebuffered, paused, and/or converted to a static stored stream 3071,whenever interactive video streams 43-740 are non-quiescent andswitching back by reselecting and unpausing the preferredgame/feed/stream when interactive video streams 43-740 are quiescentagain. Additionally, a User 43-600 may participate in a plurality ofleagues and thus have a plurality of teams for which they desire toconsume all of the plays (or portion(s) thereof) involving the playersof their various teams in as close to realtime as possible, and maytherefore switch between such plays in a similar manner as to when theplays (or portion(s) thereof) of their players of a single league teamtranspire contemporaneously. Such switching may entail buffering ordelaying (such as is done in a DVR when pausing a TV feed) of one ormore temporally overlapping plays (or portion(s) thereof) to allow eachplay (or portion thereof) to be viewed in its entirety. Such temporallyoverlapping plays (or portion(s) thereof) may also be presentedsimultaneously using picture-in-picture, split screen, or othermulti-view technologies.

FIGS. 43C, 43D and 43E illustrate a video anthology of plays featuringplayers in a User's Fantasy Football Team. For example, such ananthology can include key portions of plays by players in the User'sFantasy Football Team in games over the prior week. For example, asshown in FIG. 43C, the quarterback (QB) may be a player in a User'sFantasy Football Team. In FIG. 43C, QB completes a pass to a widereceiver (WR1) who catches the pass at approximately the 35-yard line.Because QB is a player in a User's Fantasy Football Team, the portion ofthe play that includes the pass from QB to WR1 will be included, subjectto their preferences, in the anthology of plays (or portion(s) thereof)provided to the User. The portion of the play showing the completion byQB will affect the QB's scoring in the User's Fantasy Football Team andis of interest to the User and can therefore be included as part ofinteractive video stream 43-740 that is provided to the User. The Userhas also selected strong safety (SS) as part of their defensive team andin the play shown in FIG. 43C, SS tackles WR1. In this example, a singleplay shows to the User two distinct portions that each apply to adifferent one of the User's selected team players.

The play (or portion thereof) shown in FIG. 43D may be shown to the Userimmediately after the play (or portion thereof) shown in FIG. 43E aspart of the anthology of plays (or portion(s) thereof) shown to theUser. In FIG. 43D, an offensive team different from the team shown inFIG. 43C is shown. In the team shown in FIG. 43D, the User haspreviously selected wide receiver 3 (WR3) as a player on the User'sFantasy Football Team. As seen in FIG. 43D, WR3 catches a pass atapproximately the 38-yard line. This play (or portion thereof) showingthe quarterback (QB) passing the ball to WR3 can follow the play (orportion thereof) shown in FIG. 43C. The User can thereby view plays (orportion(s) thereof) by three players that are part of their team in twoplays. The manner or sequence in which the plays (or portion(s) thereof)are displayed can be varied. For example the plays (or portion(s)thereof) can be sequentially shown or can be concurrently shown indifferent parts of the User's viewing area (e.g. one or more screens orsharing a single screen) or can be offered as still images (thumbnails)for interactive selection by the User to control viewing ofcorresponding video.

FIG. 43E illustrates a third play featuring a player selected by theUser to be part of the User's Fantasy Football Team. The real lifeoffensive team in FIG. 43E may be the same as or entirely separate fromthe offensive teams shown in FIG. 43C and/or FIG. 43D. In FIG. 43E, therunning back (RB) is the player previously selected by the User to bepart of the User's Fantasy Football Team. The play (or portion thereof)shown in FIG. 43E, is provided to the User because RB, who has beenselected by User to be part of their team, receives a hand-off from thequarter back (QB) and runs to the right for a net yardage gain. RBtherefor according to Fantasy Football rules, affects the scoring forthe User who is able to view as part of an anthology of plays (orportion(s) thereof), the manner in which the User's score was affectedby the play of the User's selected team players in the Fantasy Footballleague.

The three plays shown in FIGS. 43C, 43D and 43E (or portion(s) thereof)are not necessarily contiguous in the customized video stream 43-740(though they may be contiguous) but nevertheless can provide the Userwith an anthology of plays (or portion(s) thereof) of interest to theUser from, for example, the play of players selected by the User over aparticular time period such as a single week of play or in realtime asthe plays transpire. The anthology created from the three plays shown inFIGS. 43C, 43D and 43E (or portion(s) thereof) can form part of theinteractive video stream 43-740 provided to the User.

FIG. 43F is a flow chart that illustrates the detailed workings ofViewing Engine 43-700 shown in FIG. 43B. As seen in FIG. 43F, ViewingEngine 43-700 generates interactive video stream 43-740 from a pluralityof video clips 43-1000.1, 43-1000.2, 43-1000.3 (referred to genericallyas 43-1000) that have been selected for a plurality of Arkiïs™ Users43-600. The video clips 43-1000 may correspond to portions of the videostreams generated by the plurality of cameras shown in FIG. 43A such asBroadcast feed 43-400, the secondary video feeds (43-410, 43-420,43-430, 43-440, 43-450, etcetera) or an alternate feed 43-460. Aplurality of Arkiïs™ Users 43-600 may join together into an Arkiïs™SyncGroup 43-650. FIG. 43F depicts one such SyncGroup 43-650 thatcorresponds to the Arkiïs™ User 43-600 in FIG. 43B but with SyncGroup43-650 composed of Alice, Bob, and Charlie, Arkiïs™ Users 43-600,43-610, and 43-620 respectively, wherein Charlie 43-620 may be the groupleader. The Profiles of each member of the SyncGroup 43-650 are eachutilized individually to query, via database engine 43-505, a set ofranked video clips 43-1000.1, 43-1000.2, and 43-1000.3 from Arkiïs™Content Database 43-510. For example, the query for User 43-600 mayrequest, according to their Profile preferences, plays for their teammembers (also denoted in their Profile) with a scoring value of at least5 points, except for the quarterback, for which only a scoring value ofat least 3 points is required that have transpired in the last 24 hoursand have not been previously viewed by User 43-600 in order to receiveranked video clips 43-1000.

FIG. 43G is a flow chart that illustrates another example of using User43-600 Profile to query via database engine 43-505 a set of ranked videoclips 43-1000 via a notification 43-590 as they transpire. A databasechange notification query 43-580 may be registered with database engine43-505 on behalf of User 43-600 in order to receive callbacknotifications 43-590 upon a triggering match 43-585 being positivelydetected and no invocation of callback 43-595 when not detected. Each ofthe callback notifications 43-590 includes a composed Video Clip 43-1000in response to a new live play, that transpires with a matching criteriasuch as a matching metadata tagging assigned scoring value, for one oftheir team players being added to database 43-510. (An alternativematching criteria may be a play that is rated exceptionally highly byother Users.) The video clip 43-1000 may correspond to portions of thevideo feeds generated by the plurality of cameras shown in FIG. 43A suchas Broadcast feed 43-400, the secondary video feeds (43-410, 43-420,43-430, 43-440, 43-450, etcetera) or an alternate feed 43-460. In suchfashion, an intermittent semi-live stream of plays may be provided toUser via interactive video stream 43-740 where the stream goes quiescentwhenever all presently triggered matching plays have been completelydelivered to User in the stream 43-740. This feed corresponds to one ofthe live broadcast streams 3070 and is selected by stream selector 3000according to its Profile assigned precedence and other preferences whennot quiescent to be delivered at 3010 such as by picture-in-picture orby taking over the whole display and temporarily pausing the feed it isinterrupting such that the interrupted feed may be resumed upon stream43-740 going quiescent again.

The video clips 43-1000.1, 43-1000.2, and 43-1000.3, for each of theSyncGroup 43-650 Users are selected, composed, and ranked such thattheir corresponding metadata match and order according to thecorresponding User's Profile preferences, e.g. Arkiïs™ User 43-600,43-610, and 43-620. In such a fashion, video clips are chosen thatfeature the Fantasy Football Team members of the Arkiïs™ User 43-600,43-610, and 43-620 subject to their Profile preferences. Each suchselected video clip 43-1000.1, 43-1000.2, and 43-1000.3 (see moredetails in FIG. 43H) corresponds to at least one Fantasy Footballscoring event (e.g. a scoring kick, an unassisted tackle, a passcompletion, a first-down run, a goal, etc.) from the beginning to end ofsuch scoring event and that is tied to at least one team player andassigned at least one scoring value according to User's Profilepreferences designating their league's rules. Said selected video clipsmay themselves be composed of one or more camera angles, perspectives,video overlays, and/or audio commentary of the scoring event(s) suchthat the angles and perspectives chosen reflect the preferences of eachArkiïs™ User 43-600, 43-610, and 43-620. Such combined video feeds maybe composed together in a single frame, such as by picture-in-picture orside-by-side, or edited together via effects such as a video dissolve orwipe. Annotations may appear overlaid on top of the original video feed,such as by a virtual marker drawing a future path or highlightinglocations for viewer special attention, graphics depicting the assignedscoring value and/or their updated relative ranking within their league.Such video feeds may be stopped as still frames to allow commentary andannotations or be played back at slow motion or even fast motion insteadof the normal rate of play.

Selected Video Clips 43-1000.1, 43-1000.2, and 43-1000.3 are searchedfor duplications, by for example, examining the associated metadata(such as a game identifier, play identifier, and/or game time encoding),for adjacencies, and/or overlaps by processing in Coalesce DuplicatesEngine 43-710. Such duplications may arise due to, for example, multipleplayers (possibly coming from both the offensive and defensive teams)being involved in a single play, each being attributed a FantasyFootball scoring event for one or more portions of the play, suchplayers possibly being on the same Arkiïs™ User 43-600 Fantasy FootballTeam or being on a plurality of Arkiïs™ User 43-600, 43-610, 43-620Fantasy Football Teams. For example, a first such player may be thequarterback in a play (e.g. the QB in the play depicted in FIG. 43C),that completes a reception to a wide receiver (e.g. the WR1 in FIG.43C), being a second such player, who runs and is tackled by a defensivestrong safety (e.g. the SS in FIG. 43C), being a third such player.Identified duplicated Video Clips 43-1000 are merged together, combiningtheir metadata into a single merged Video Clip 43-1000, such merging maybe of the same time of play, overlapping times of play, or adjacenttimes of play, and thus merging may entail combining, interleavingand/or concatenation of Video Clips 43-1000 into a single coalescedVideo Clip. Such coalescing may entail merging or replacing customannotation such as custom Annotation 3 in FIG. 43H with a merged orrecreated custom annotation that reflects a plurality of FantasyFootball team players and/or a plurality of Fantasy Football teams, suchmerging or recreation may derive from analysis of the associatedmetadata.

Coalesced Video Clips are filtered and sorted into a pleasing (e.g.cohesive) narrative according to pre-established algorithms andheuristics and/or the SyncGroup 43-650 combined preferences in Filterand Sort Narrative Engine 43-720. (Note that throughout thisspecification, an Arkiïs™ User such as 43-600 by themselves may beconsidered a degenerate kind of SyncGroup such as 43-650 and thus eitherone may be substituted for the other as appropriate.) Such filtering andsorting may entail a ranking and/or ordering of coalesced Video Clips43-1000 to create a composed stream (or possibly multiple streams,customized for each of the SyncGroup 43-650 members Arkiïs™ Users43-600, 43-610, 43-620) for viewing, the stream including appropriatebreak points and including a custom running tally of the relative scorebetween the SyncGroup members for presentation to Arkiïs™ User 43-600while consuming the stream or integrated into the stream such as byAnnotation Component 43-574. The stream may include chapter points(analogous to DVD or Blu-Ray chapter points), such as between coalescedVideo Clips 43-1000 and/or within each Video Clip 43-1000 between feedpoints. Such chapter points allow easy navigation within the streamduring User consumption to move by wholesale chunk relatively from onechapter point to the next or absolutely to a named and/or numberedchapter point. Pleasing narrative may be composed according to Userpreferences, such as to be in absolute chronological ordering as theVideo Clips 43-1000 unfolded in real time, or in relative chronologicalordering as to the relative time within their containing game each VideoClip 43-1000 unfolded, such relative time being either based upon gameclock time, or absolute time elapsed from the beginning of the game.Alternatively, pleasing narrative may be ordered such as to createdramatic narrative tension whereby the video stream is ordered so as tocreate a back and forth scoring tension as the presently winning FantasyFootball Team during stream play varies among the SyncGroup 43-650 Usersin such a way as to create mystery as to who will ultimately win,possibly deferring very large scoring plays (or portion(s) thereof) tothe end of narrative. The techniques employed in creating pleasingnarrative may benefit from shot transition management for cohesion suchas the avoidance of “jump cuts” by extrapolation of the ideas presentedin papers like the 2012 IEEE International Conference on Multimedia andExpo (ICME) in “Automatic Video Editing for Video-Based InteractiveStorytelling” by E. S. de Lima et al. or the 1998 IEEE Transactions onKnowledge and Data Engineering, (Volume: 10, Issue: 6) in “Automaticcomposition techniques for video production” by G. Ahanger et al.

Filtered and sorted Video Clips 43-1000 are made available asinteractive video stream 43-740 (that may be considered to correspond toLive broadcast streams 3070 and/or Static stored streams 3071 in FIG.30) to SyncGroup Users using Replay Narrative Engine 43-730. The replayengine allows Users to pause, rewind, fast-forward, and explore theircustom narrative, track which portions they have previously viewed, aswell as to see their accumulated Fantasy Football score relative to theother Users at a given point (but not necessarily the present point ofviewing) in the narrative, and/or their score as it will be at the endof the narrative, at times, only a subset of the available scores may beshown. Exploring their custom narrative includes being able to provideFeedback 3020 to request expansion of Video Clip 43-1000 by for exampleeither exploring alternative feeds or traversing beyond the beginning orend of Video Clip 43-1000 to see what transpired before or after it.Such exploration may generate a revised database engine 43-504 querythrough Profile information 3050 to receive an updated Video Clip43-1000 for further exploration. Arkiïs™ User 43-600 may vote upon orjudge the various Video Clips 43-1000 (included as part of interactivevideo stream 43-740) they view to provide an assessment/opinion of howcompelling, entertaining, exciting, important, or other measurement(such as via Create feedback 3020) the Video Clips 43-1000 are, and torecord such additional metadata tagging via Record Metadata Tagging43-800 and give credit to User 43-600 for their contribution withBilling Engine 43-900. The generation of subsequent Video Clip 43-1000query results for subsequent Users may employ the additional metadatatagging according to subsequent User's Profiles, so as to provide VideoClips 43-1000 that best match the needs and interest of subsequentUsers.

FIG. 43H is a block diagram of an exemplary Video Clip 43-1000 for aportion of the exemplary play depicted in FIG. 43C. The clip begins witha fade from black at time point 1 (2 seconds after the ball snap) withAudio Commentary 1 (composed from Audio Component 43-570, originatingfrom Alternative Feed 43-440) and a split screen showing Video Feed 1(composed from Video Component 43-572, originating from Alternative Feed43-420) on the left with focus on the quarterback (denoted as QB in FIG.43C) and Video Feed 2 on the right focused on the wide receiver (denotedas WR1 in FIG. 43C) that is the Fantasy Football player for whom thisVideo Clip portion of the play was composed. At time point 2, AudioCommentary 1 continues, but the video wipes across to reveal Video Feed3 showing an overview of the play in action (a wide-angle shot showingmost of the field of play depicted in FIG. 43C). At time point 3,computer graphics Annotation 1 (composed from Annotation Component43-574, originating from one or more Alternate Feeds 43-460) issuperimposed on top of Video Feed 3 with a virtual marker drawing linesto indicate where a gap is forming (denoted as the shaded triangleregion emanating from QB towards WR1 in FIG. 43C) that the wide receiver(WR1) is going to run through. At time point 4, the sound cross fades toAudio Commentary 2 and the video dissolves over to Video Feed 4 with apoint of view shot of the wide receiver (WR1) catching the ball andrunning down the field. At time point 5, Video Feed 5 is added as apicture-in-picture (PIP) showing a defensive strong safety (denoted asSS in FIG. 43C) coming and tackling the wide receiver (WR1), ending theplay at time point 6. Also at time point 5, custom Annotation 3 isoverlaid on top of Feed 4 for User 43-600 to show the Fantasy Footballscoring value earned and/or their updated league standings, etc. At timepoint 6, the video cuts to Prebuilt Composed Component 43-576(originating from Broadcast Feed 43-400), which is the composition ofinteresting still-frame from Video Feed 3 upon which Annotation 2 isdrawn, and sound cuts to Audio Commentary 3 that discusses what is beingannotated. At time point 7, the Prebuilt Composed Component 43-576 cutsto a split frame showing a slow-motion of Video Feed 6 (not previouslyviewed) above a corresponding time-point slow-motion of Video Feed 3 inthe bottom half as Audio Commentary 3 continues its discussion as partof Prebuilt Composed Component 43-576, going into the two slow-motionplays, showing interesting portions as a critical part of the playunfolds for the wide receiver (WR1). At time point 8, the clip fades toblack/silence and ends at the point that Prebuilt Composed Component43-576 comes to an end. The Video Clip 43-1000 may include metadata thatdescribe any necessary details required to formulate the foregoingcomposition such as start and end time point encodings for componentfeeds. Metadata may also include team player identification such as forthe quarterback, Fantasy Football event identifier, and/or FantasyFootball scoring value earned. Metadata may additionally include ratinginformation on the play, particular feeds and/or sections of the play.

In the case that User 43-600 participates in multiple leagues andtherefore has multiple Fantasy Football teams, the custom Annotation 3may include designation of the one or more leagues for which the VideoClip 43-1000 applies and corresponding scoring value earned and/orupdated league standings. Each league's designation may be assigned adistinctive look-and-feel, either as assigned by the User and/ordefaulted by their league's SyncGroup. The distinctive look-and-feelallows the User to easily recognize which of their leagues is beingpresented to them at a given time. The distinctive look-and-feel mayinclude a league name and/or logo that is shown as a digital on-screengraphic, as well as a distinctive color-scheme, font or layout forstatistical and other Fantasy Football information pertaining to plays(or portion(s) thereof) being viewed. In audio content, the distinctivelook-and-feel may correspond to a unique voice, accent, pace, cadenceand/or tonal quality being assigned to a league.

Just as FIG. 43H represents a Video Clip 43-1000, FIG. 43I correspondsto an Audio Clip 43-1000 for use such as in a sound only medium likeradio. The below functions may be employed in composing the audioportion of a Video Clip 43-1000 as shown in conjunction with FIG. 43H.FIG. 43I is a block diagram of an exemplary Audio Clip 43-1000 for aportion of the exemplary play depicted in FIG. 43C. The play depicted inFIG. 43C may have associated audio commentary that does not depend upona video component, such as that created for a radio broadcast. There maybe multiple sources of such commentary (e.g. for competing radiostations, or a provider targeting different demographics with multiplefeeds, such as a feed for fans of a particular team). Such commentarymay include feeds that correspond to action (e.g. Announcer 1, Announcer2, Announcer 3) as the play transpires as well as feeds that correspondto discussion and/or analysis after the play transpires (e.g. Analysis &Commentary 1, Analysis & Commentary 2). Custom annotations maycorrespond to computer generated voice dictation of the resultantFantasy Football scoring value and/or the updated league standings (e.g.Computer Generated Voice Results). There may be audio feeds that recordthe sounds of the crowd (e.g. Crowd Feed) and/or the sounds of theplayers on the field (e.g. Player 1 Microphone, Player 2 Microphone,Field Microphone), such as by one or more players wearing microphones toprovide sound from their point-of-view or a microphone aimed at the lineof scrimmage on the field to pick up the low-frequency sounds of playercollisions. These various feeds may be composed together in databaseengine 43-505 such as by mixing, directing to specific audio channels(e.g. 5.1 audio channels: left, center, right, surround left, surroundright, and subwoofer), cuts and/or cross fades (e.g. crossfade constantgain, crossfade constant power, and crossfade exponential). Theresultant Audio Clip 43-1000 also includes metadata analogous to thatassociated with Video Clip 43-1000. At time point 1 a crossfadeexponential brings up Announcer 1 on the left channel, Announcer 2 onthe center channel, and Announcer 3 on the right channel who aredescribing the play in concert with each other. Additionally, the soundof the crowd feed is on the left and right surround channels, togetherwith a player 1 microphone from the play also mixed into surround leftand player 2 microphone mixed into surround right. The low-frequencysounds of players colliding with each other are sent to the subwooferchannel. At time point 2, the play completes and all channels get acrossfade constant gain transition to silence except for the crowd feedthat remains unfaded in the surround channels. Also at time point 2, acomputer generated voice results is brought up in the cross fade on thecenter channel to read a customized rendition of the Fantasy Footballscoring value effected by the play for the User followed by an update oftheir standings in their league. At time point 3, a crossfade constantpower transition is applied to bring up Analysis & Commentary 1 onchannels left, center, and right with a replay of player 1 microphone onsurround left and player 2 microphone on surround right. At time point4, the left, center, and right channels cut to Analysis & Commentary 2while the player microphones continue on the surround channels. At timepoint 5, the audio clip 1000 comes to an end with a crossfadeexponential.

The pieces of Video Clip 43-1000 may be composed of raw feed components(such as originating from feeds 43-410, 43-420, . . . , 43-450) in orderthat irrelevant information may be omitted. For example, within theFantasy Football context, the actual game score and/or stats, may beoverlaid as a component of a video feed (originating from Broadcast Feed43-400) that is composed for an audience wishing to enjoy a singletraditional broadcast football game. Such overlay may be irrelevant inthe context of a Fantasy Football scoring event, and thus, in Video Clip43-1000, when it includes a feed that may be correspondingly includedwithin a traditional game transmission 43-400, such included feed maynot include overlaid information that is not relevant within aparticular Fantasy Football context, such as the aforementioned gamescore and/or stats.

The Video Clip 43-1000 has associated metadata that describes the VideoClip 43-1000 as a whole and additional metadata that describes theindividual pieces and how they are composed together to make the VideoClip 43-1000. Metadata describing the Video Clip as a whole include anidentifier that designates at least one team player whose scoring eventis being explored by the Video Clip 43-1000 as well as the FantasyFootball scoring value(s) assigned to the play (or portion thereof) foreach of the Fantasy Football team players featured in the clip for theArkiïs™ User 43-600 for whom the feed query was made that resulted inthe formulation of the Video Clip 43-1000. Other metadata may includerating information about the significance, importance or entertainmentvalue of the play (or portion thereof) as automatically determined bycomputer, as judged by other Arkiïs™ Users, or as judged bycommentators. Metadata may include the start and end time points of theplay in absolute time as compared to all games and/or in relative timeto the start of the game in which it occurred as either wall clock timeand/or game clock time. Metadata may also include a uniquely assignedFantasy Football scoring event identifier, such identifier beingassigned uniquely to a particular scoring event of a play (or portionthereof with corresponding start and end time points) within aparticular set of Fantasy Football league rules. Metadata may includeVideo Clip 43-1000 duration, frame rate, pixel resolution, pixel aspectratio, copyright ownership, licensing terms, credit for contributors,etc. The individual pieces that are composed together into Video Clip43-1000 (e.g. Feeds, Annotations, Audios, Special Effects, etc.) maythemselves include similar kinds metadata as that of the Video Clip43-1000 as a whole, for example, source information (player 43-220 headmounted camera), credit (e.g. camera operator), time point begin and end(relative, absolute, etc.), identification of players being shown/heardin a piece, pixel resolution, copyright, etc.

FIG. 43J is a flow diagram illustrating generation of video clip 43-1000by Database Engine 43-505. An Arkiïs™ User 43-600 has a Query Request43-540 that includes parameters derived from Arkiïs™ User 43-600 andtheir Profile preferences. Such Query Request 43-540 is fed into theLocate Matching Plays 43-520 engine for query processing against theArkiïs™ Content Databases 43-510 to select a set of plays 43-560 thatare interesting (e.g. result in a Fantasy Football scoring event forUser) to Arkiïs™ User 43-600 due to the plays 43-560 involving one ormore of the User's Fantasy Football Team members and being assigned aFantasy Football scoring event for at least a portion of the play. Theplays 43-560 each include various metadata information such as, the oneor more players involved, the fantasy football scoring value(s), andplay portion begin and end time points. For example, in the playdepicted in FIG. 43C for player SS, the play portion begin and end timepoints may be determined according to the preferences of requesting User43-600, e.g. if the User prefers to see play context, then the playportion start point may be at the point of ball snap or huddlecompletion, even though the scoring event for SS may only arise upon SStackling WR1, several seconds after the ball snap, alternatively, theUser may prefer play portion start point to be from the later time pointof ball reception by WR1, or according to grading evaluations on thatplay (or portion(s) thereof) by other Users that have already reviewedthe play (or portion(s) thereof) and provided feedback on the mostinteresting portion time points.

Each such selected play 43-560 is provided to the Locate Play ClipComponents 43-530 engine to query the Arkiïs™ Content Databases 43-510for one or more of Audio Component 43-570, Video Component 43-572,Annotation Component 43-573, and/or Prebuilt Composed Component 43-576.Such selected components are chosen to match play 43-560 (e.g. one ofthe plays (or portion(s) thereof) depicted in FIGS. 43C, 43D, and 43E)and reflect the preferences of Arkiïs™ User 43-600 as registered intheir Profile. The selected components begin and end according to theselected play's 43-560 begin and end time point portions. The selectedcomponents may be chosen according to the requesting User's preferences,such as selecting those components rated highly by other Users that havepreviously provided rating feedback on the most interesting components,favoring close-ups over long shots, and/or preferring one commentatorover another.

The various Components are all provided to the Video Clip Composer43-550 to create Video Clip 43-1000 according to Arkiïs™ User'spreferences and to store Video Clip 43-1000 composition in the Arkiïs™Content Databases 43-510 for future reuse (e.g. as a source ofadditional Prebuilt Composed Component 43-576), metadata tagging inRecord Metadata Tagging 43-800 and for reference by Billing Engine43-900. Video Clip 43-1000 may duplicate the various Components composedtogether into a new clip that stands on its own or it may simply containthe information necessary and sufficient to compose Video Clip 43-1000on demand from its constituent pieces or some combination thereof. Forexample, such information necessary to compose Video Clip 43-1000 mayinclude references to the component clips or pieces within the database43-510 together with entry and exit time points for each portion andwhether only a part, such as just audio or just video, is being taken,and how to mix such part as by for example picture-in-picture ordirecting sound to particular audio channel such as surround speakers.The techniques used to automatically generate video highlights inresponse to game events (e.g. scoring, interception, etc.) for sportsvideo feeds is known and may be analogously adapted, applied andextended to the generation of Video Clip 43-1000 described here,examples include those employed by Pointstreak Sports Technologies Inc.in their “Hockey Live Video Highlights Software” and also such as thosedescribed in “Sports scorekeeping system with integrated scoreboard andautomatic entertainment system” WO 2012006498 A2. Additionally, thepreviously disclosed techniques for creating pleasing narrative may beapplied here to benefit the generation of Video Clip 43-1000 such asshot transition management for cohesion within a play 43-560, such asthe avoidance of “jump cuts”.

21. Alternatives

The technologies from any example can be combined with the technologiesdescribed in any one or more of the other examples. In view of the manypossible embodiments to which the principles of the disclosed technologymay be applied, it should be recognized that the illustrated embodimentsare examples of the disclosed technology and should not be taken as alimitation on the scope of the disclosed technology. Rather, the scopeof the disclosed technology includes what is covered by the followingclaims. We therefore claim as our invention all that comes within thescope of these claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A computerized method for providing customizedentertainment content comprising: providing a first digitally encodedprogram for transmission to a set of subscribers; causing a pause intransmission of the first digitally encoded program to permittransmission of at least a second digitally encoded program to at leasta first subscriber from the set of subscribers; selecting the seconddigitally encoded program from a set of digitally encoded programs inresponse to data indicative of a preference in programming by said firstsubscriber; and providing, during the pause in transmission of the firstdigitally encoded program, the second digitally encoded program fortransmission to the first subscriber.
 2. The computerized method ofclaim 1 further comprising: upon expiration of a first time period,causing termination of transmission of the second digitally encodedprogram and resumption of transmission of the first digitally encodedprogram.
 3. The computerized method of claim 2 wherein the first timeperiod is predetermined.
 4. The computerized method of claim 2 whereinthe first time period is determined as a function of events in the firstdigitally encoded program.
 5. The computerized method of claim 2 whereinthe first time period is determined as a function of events in thesecond digitally encoded program.
 6. The computerized method of claim 1wherein the data indicative of a preference in programming by said firstsubscriber is provided by the first subscriber contemporaneously withthe transmission of the first digitally encoded program.
 7. Thecomputerized method of claim 1 wherein the data indicative of apreference in programming by said first subscriber comprises demographicdata.
 8. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the data indicativeof a preference in programming by said first subscriber is previouslyprovided by the first subscriber and is stored in a subscriber database.9. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the second digitallyencoded program is of a live event and the transmission of the seconddigital program occurs relatively simultaneously with occurrence of thelive event.
 10. The computerized method of claim 1 wherein the seconddigitally encoded program is an interactive game.
 11. The computerizedmethod of claim 1 further comprising, causing a fee associated with thesecond digitally encoded program to be charged to the first subscriber.12. The computerized method of claim 1 further comprising, causing a feeassociated with the second digitally encoded program to be credited tothe first subscriber.
 13. The computerized method of claim 1 furthercomprising, calculating a fee associated with the second digitallyencoded program to be charged to the first subscriber as a function ofstored information pertaining to the first subscriber.
 14. Thecomputerized method of claim 13 wherein the stored informationpertaining to the first subscriber comprises an integrity ratinggenerated by prior activities of the first subscriber.
 15. Thecomputerized method of claim 1 wherein the first digitally encodedprogram is of a football game, wherein the method comprises: generatinga query to a database to identify players in the football game;generating a query to a subscriber database to identify at least a firstfootball player selected by the first subscriber; and causing the seconddigitally encoded program to include replay of the first football playerin the football game.
 16. A computerized method for providing acompetition in which users select imaginary teams from among players ina sports league and score points according to the actual performance oftheir selected players comprising: providing a first digitally encodedprogram of a sports game for transmission to an audience; causing apause in playback of the first digitally encoded program to permitreplay of at least a second digitally encoded program to at least afirst user of said users, the second digitally encoded program providingan interactive replay of selected portions of at least one sports game;retrieving from a database, information pertaining to an imaginary teamassociated with the first user; and causing the interactive replay ofselected portions of a sports game to include at least a first playerselected by the first User.
 17. The computerized method of claim 16wherein the sports game comprises a football game.
 18. A computerizedmethod for providing customized video of a sports game competition inwhich users form imaginary teams from among actual players in a sportsleague and score points according to the actual performance of theirselected actual players, comprising: retrieving from a user database,player information indicative of actual players selected by a firstuser; selecting at least a subset of the actual players selected by thefirst user, identifying for each player of the subset, at least a firstsegment of video footage showing play of the players to generate a setof identified video segments; ordering the set of identified videosegments in accordance with a defined set of ordering criteria; and uponrequest, causing transmission of the identified video segments inaccordance with the defined set of ordering criteria.
 19. Thecomputerized method of claim 18 wherein the sports game comprises afootball game and the sports league comprises a football league.
 20. Thecomputerized method of claim 18 wherein the first user is in competitionin the sports league with a second user, the method further comprising:selecting at least a subset of the actual players selected by the seconduser, identifying for each player of the subset of the actual playersselected by the second user, at least a first segment of video footageshowing play of the players to generate a set of identified videosegments for the second user; ordering the set of identified videosegments for the second user in accordance with a defined set ofordering criteria corresponding to the second user; and upon request,causing transmission of the identified video segments for the seconduser in accordance with the defined set of ordering criteriacorresponding to the second user.
 21. The computerized method of claim20 further comprising causing transmission of the identified videosegments for the second user to enable concurrent display of theidentified video segments for the first user and of the identified videosegments for the second user.
 22. The computerized method of claim 20further comprising causing transmission of the identified video segmentsfor the second user to enable sequenced display of the identified videosegments for the first user and of the identified video segments for thesecond user.
 23. The computerized method of claim 18 wherein the sportsgame competition includes assigning points for the actual performance ofeach the actual players, and wherein the step of identifying for eachplayer of the subset, at least a first segment of video footage showingplay of the player to generate a set of identified video segmentscomprises, for each player of the subset: querying a game database toidentify plays by the player that cause points to be assigned to theplayer to generate a list of identified plays; and identifying from agame video database, the video segments corresponding to the identifiedplays.
 24. The computerized method of claim 18 wherein the defined setof ordering criteria comprises criteria to cause ordering based uponpoints scored.
 25. The computerized method of claim 18 wherein the stepof causing transmission of the identified video segments in accordancewith the defined set of ordering criteria comprises causing transmissionof a portion of the identified video segments to fill a time segmentwithin a first video program.